People Are Strange: Special Anniversary Edition
by Lady of the Lost and Found
Summary: Enjoy the newly remastered "Special Anniversary Edition" of the original "People Are Strange" backstory. Fay and the Boys are back along with brand new chapters and never-before-seen content. Everything you loved about the original has been polished up in honour of the 30th Anniversary of The Lost Boys film. Sit back, relax, and as Paul would say, "Let the good times roll!".
1. The Story Soundtrack

_"You don't have to be blood to be family."_

Santa Carla in the mid-80's had one hell of a nightlife. It was the Murder Capital Of The World and the Boardwalk was a bright neon jewel in California's supernatural crown. That was until Max showed up to stake his claim. The locals were not about to simply step aside and let that happen however. Not without a fight. So a band of blood brothers, The Lost Boys, teamed up with an unlikely ally to defend what was rightfully theirs.

That was a big mistake.

Enjoy the **_People Are Strange: Special Anniversary Edition_** of the backstory fic of the 80's cult classic film that brought a new generation of bloodsuckers into the bright neon-infused light. Plot-holes are filled. Questions are answered. New chapters/content has now been brought to light. As to why the Lost Boys, a pack of blood-thirsty nightcrawlers, ended up dusted the way they did...or did they...there is only one way to crack that old chestnut.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own nor hold any claim to the characters/concepts/plots etc. from The Lost Boys film/book/comic/script franchise. This is merely a work of fan-fiction for enjoyment sake and there is no profit being made from it. No copyright infringement is ever intended. All original characters/concepts/storylines etc. that is not found in the Lost Boys film/book/comic/script franchise however do belong to me. They will not be used/borrowed/mirrored/lifted in any way without my consent. Thank you.

* * *

Here is the new **Character Theme Song Collection** that goes hand-in-hand with the story. For a completely immersed reading experience make sure to follow along with the chapter song selections that will be added to the chapters as we go along as well as the character inspired song titles below. These songs are true to form of all things _The Lost Boys_ and are a prime example of the vivid neon bright big-haired vibe of the 1980's. So much hair. So many leg warmers. And a whole lotta leather. _Meow!_

So sit back, relax, and let the good times roll!

 **Character Theme Song Collection**

 _Welcome To The Jungle_ by Guns N' Roses ( **David** )

 _The Price_ by Twisted Sister ( **David** )

 _Paint It Black_ by The Rolling Stones ( **David** )

 _Kiss Me Deadly_ by Lita Ford ( **Fay** )

 _Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)_ by Joan Jett & The Blackhearts ( **Fay** )

 _Suspicious Minds_ by Elvis ( **Fay** )

 _Rebel Yell_ by Billy Idol ( **Dwayne** )

 _Rainbow In The Dark_ by DIO ( **Dwayne** )

 _Youth Gone Wild_ by Skid Row ( **Dwayne** )

 _Still Loving You_ by The Scorpions ( **Dwayne/Fay** )

 _I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight_ by Cutting Crew ( **Dwayne/Fay** )

 _Poison_ by Alice Cooper ( **Dwayne/Fay** )

 _I Was Made For Lovin' You_ by KISS ( **Paul** )

 _Cum On Feel The Noize_ by Quiet Riot ( **Paul** )

 _I Fought The Law_ by The Clash ( **Paul** )

 _Nobody's Fool_ by Cinderella ( **Marko** )

 _18 And Life_ by Skid Row ( **Marko** )

 _Dream On_ by Aerosmith ( **Marko** )

 _We Belong_ by Pat Benatar ( **Star** )

 _Like A Prayer_ by Madonna ( **Star** )

 _Sometimes She Cries_ by Warrant ( **Star** )

 _Eternal Flame_ by The Bangles ( **Laddie** )

 _Daydream Believer_ by The Monkees ( **Laddie** )

 _Puff the Magic Dragon_ by Peter, Paul & Mary ( **Laddie** )

 _Mr. Crowley_ by Ozzy Osbourne ( **Max** )

 _California Dreamin'_ by The Mamas & the Papas ( **Max** )

 _Killing Me Softly_ by Frank Sinatra ( **Max** )

 _House Of The Rising Sun_ by The Animals ( **Grandpa Emerson** )

 _Stop Children What's That Sound_ by Buffalo Springfield ( **Grandpa Emerson** )

 _Those Were The Days_ by Mary Hopkins ( **Grandpa Emerson** )

 _San Francisco_ by Scott Mackenzie ( **Lucy Emerson** )

 _Ruby Tuesday_ by The Rolling Stones ( **Lucy Emerson** )

 _The Winner Takes It All_ by ABBA ( **Lucy Emerson** )


	2. Prologue

It was just another hot sultry day in Santa Carla, the _Murder Capital of the World_...

In the Eighties Santa Carla was a bit of a morbid gem in the vampiric world. A hot spot for all that wild and free "youth gone wild" subculture that made the decade what it was. Costal California towns were always a big draw for everything that goes bump-in-the-night and since the Golden State was and still is predominantly vampire territory, things were always rather interesting.

As the Undead like to say, those were the days!

They like to say that a lot. It gets annoying. Very much so.

During that time I was just your average girl-next-door. With the whole big bouffant hairdo, pink knitted leg warmers, god-awful earrings, and tacky oversized sweaters. It was the Eighties. The rule of thumb was the more the colours clashed the higher the fashion sense.

I am also a Prima. A bonafide 22nd generation Italian strega, on my mother's side.

There are genuine witches in the world. Loads of them all over the place. But then there is us. The Prima Family. One of many but we are the Italians and we aren't all potion brewers and spell casters. My family falls under just about every supernatural category you can possibly think of and then some.

With one exception of course. There are no vampires.

 **Ever.**

Remember that. It's important. Because what kind of introduction would this be without a little foreshadowing?

Now I am here to set the record straight. What record? The boys' record.

You know them as The Lost Boys.

A pack of wild teenage punks who lived for the thrill, didn't give a damn about anything, and ended up getting the literal stake from a bunch of kids because they could not see it coming.

I will admit that much is true. But that is not the full story. The movie that was made focuses solely around a small fraction of what actually went on. Sort of like painting a wall-sized fresco with only two colours of paint.

A lot of stuff got left out. Now I do not think that the writers would have minded the idea of a spoon-wielding witch putting foot to ass along with four killer head-banging vampires but they had Hollywood to contend with. Tinsel Town's movers and shakers had a different notion on what a female lead was supposed to look and act like and I sure wasn't it.

I mean, look at Star.

So I am going to let you in on the before and after of what really happened to David, Dwayne, Paul, Marko, Star, Laddie, and Max.

 _The Lost Boys_ movie is pretty solid with the basic facts. The Emersons came to town, the local vampires got annoyed, a video shop owner had a serious hard-on for a recently divorced mother of two, Star messed up big time, a bunch of male teenage angst, and an old guy who could not have been bothered with the drama that ensued.

As for the rest of it well get ready. You are about to discover how four guys were dealt the joker's card and ended up paying the price for something that they should never have gotten themselves involved with. Whoever said that the Boys were nothing more than cold-blooded murdering monsters without a shred of conscience thought or feeling, I'm looking at you Frog Brothers, doesn't know his ass from his forehead.

They were more than that. So much more.

I should know because I was there.


	3. Chapter One

California has always been a vampire state for as long as people have been finding their way to the coastline. The growing hubs of humanity and transient trade routes are a big draw for those who wish to hunt out in the open. Santa Carla had seen countless vampires, rouges, and packs come and go over her long history and the mid-twentieth century was no different.

During the early part of the eighties David was the resident bloodsucking nomad. He was a lone wolf that kept to the south end of town in the commercial and industrial areas as well as the Boardwalk. There were more nooks and crannies to hide in during the day and plenty of faceless transient targets to pick off once the sun went down who would not be missed.

As for Fay, her home was in the heart of the suburbs over on the north end. It was a nice little close-knit community where the houses were small, the families were average, and the kids played together in the streets until the street lamps came on at night. It was safe, quiet, and more importantly vampire free. The only time Fay willingly ventured into the downtown core was for work. At night for the most part, she stayed on her side of the zip code.

That arrangement remained unchanged for a few quiet years until one night the unexpected happened. A vampire came crashing through her front window at three in the morning.

Fate? Coincidence? Bad luck? Or as Fay would say _, "Boh, che ne so?"_

"Holy Christ on a crutch!" Fay swore as she bolted upright in bed. The jarring sound of a shattered glass filled the house and a hard impact sent a shudder through the floorboards.

"What the hell?"

The eye-mask that covered half her face was ripped off as an alarmed chirp came from the pillow next to her. A pair of emerald green eyes blinked into existence and vanished a moment later.

"Figaro, downstairs, now!" Fay fought with the cotton sheets before she swung her legs over and leapt out of bed. The fuzzy half-sleep feeling that fogged her mind was quickly replaced by a rising sense of alarm and an even larger helping of severe annoyance.

"Those little jerks!"

The words were hissed from between her teeth as she groped in the dark for a fuzzy pink bathrobe. A striped silver tomcat, Figaro, meowed in agreement before he bolted out into the hallway. Fay headed for the door but stopped short when she remembered something. With a curse that was anything but ladylike Fay turned and dove onto the bed to slide her hand under her pillow. She pulled free her trusty go-to for all things out of the ordinary. A well-made solid wooden cooking spoon.

"So help me if it's those stupid senior punks again I'm going to backhand the whole lot of them." Fay growled as she finally hurried out of her bedroom. Fay took the stairs two at a time and landed lightly when she reached the bottom. Figaro had been waiting for her on the last step. With his delicate ears laid back, eyes dilated, and thin tail puffed out to twice its size there was no question that something was amiss.

"What is it?" Fay muttered and adjusted her grip on the worn handle of the wooden spoon.

There were no heavy footsteps or drunken catcalls coming from the front yard. The typical gunned engines and squealing tires were missing. Everything was quiet and the house had begun to feel cold and dank.

But in April?

Fay did not like this. Not for a second.

"This is my house. It answers to me. Honestly Fay get a grip girl."

With a quiet exhale Fay tip-toed past the kitchen with Figaro shadowing her heels. The crash had come from the living room. The uneasy chill that had settled in the air seemed stronger in that direction and with it came a particularly nauseating aroma.

"Ugh!"

One solid whiff told her everything she needed to know. No teenaged boy smelled like the foul combination of sickly sweet death, musty earth, old leather, dried blood...and axel grease?

Armed with only the wooden spoon and a dainty-pawed house cat for backup Fay took a second to steady herself before she cautiously peered around the empty doorframe that led from the small kitchen into the larger living room. It was dark enough that the shadows that played along the walls provided an eerie feeling of foreboding. As if something dangerous was lurking in the shadows just out of her line of sight, waiting to spring out and scare her.

"Oh, you are so busted."

What did not scare her was what she saw standing in the wreckage of the large south facing ornate picture window.

A dark clad figure with a striking platinum blonde mullet was backlit from the warm yellow glow of her porch light. His face remained shadowed from view but there was a reflective gleam in his eyes that instantly caught Fay's attention.

Vampire. Santa Carla's very own midnight rider.

He was staring hard at something inside her house in a way that was remarkably predatory and familiar. It was well out of his reach on the other side of an invisible line that he would not cross. Not unless he was invited in which was never going to happen. All he could do was stand there and...seriously?

It took her a moment before she saw it.

It wasn't the broken glass and ruined furniture that set her teeth on edge. Nor was it the blatant trespassing on her very property. What got Fay's goat about this unwarranted late-night calling were the rose bushes.

There was a vampire, an undead bloodsucking homewrecker, standing smack dab in the middle of her late grandmothers prized rose bushes. And by the looks of it some of them were completely ruined.

Fay's eyes narrowed into the thinnest of slits.

There was no way on this side of the great mortal divide that Fay was going to let that one stand.

"HEY!"

Those dangerous glow-in-the-dark eyes shifted in her direction.

"What the hell do you think you are doing? You are not welcome here. Get the hell away from here and get _the hell off my roses!_ "

Fay did not think twice about it. Barefoot and bedhead, Fay stormed into the room and stopped short of stepping on the broken glass that was stuck in the thick plush area rug that took up half the floor space.

"What is this? You think this is a good idea? Coming here? Breaking my windows? Seriously? Beat it buster or so help me you will regret it." Fay brandished the wooden spoon in her right hand as if it were a conductor's baton. "Do not make me use this because I will. Oh yeah. Try it and see what happens."

The blonde figure did not say a word. He just looked at her with a bemused expression on his half-hidden face before his heated eyes drifted over her head to fix on something, or someone, behind her.

It was impossible for Fay not to follow his line of sight and when she turned around she locked eyes with something she did not expect to ever see standing in her home. Furious fiery eyes, a mane of thick black hair, one impressive bare-chested torso at eye-level, demonic features instead of a human face, and a pair of long lethal looking fangs.

"Oh...kay. Ya, no. Nuh. I...no, no I'm not doing this. You. Leave. Now."

There was an honest to goodness vampire standing smack-dab in the middle of her living room and all Fay could do was stand there dumbfounded and shake her spoon. If the situation was not so grave it would have made for a great comedy sketch.

That was what the blonde stranger thought anyways because the first sound he uttered was a deep-throated bark of laughter. That took Fay's eyes off of the snarling homicidal beefcake for a brief moment.

"You think this is funny do you?" Fay snapped.

"Actually, I do." The stranger mused as he clasped his gloved hands before him.

"Oh yeah? Well I don't! Who the hell is this guy? How the is he even in my house? And what the hell is going on? You guys are not supposed to be able to - _Ohhhhhhh_ no you DON'T!"

 **WHACK!**

Fay whipped around with such speed that she clocked the encroaching menace clean across the face with the back of her wooden spoon with enough force to send him staggering backward. Stunned, the dark-haired vampire folded like a house of cards and that was when Fay went at him with a vengeance that bordered on murderous.

"How dare you!"

It took three hefty blows to the head before he hit the floor and once he was down Fay really gave him something to snarl about.

"Don't you dare try to bite me! _EVER!_ "

Fay screeched at a pitch that it made the blonde stranger wince in sympathy for the poor schmuck that had made the wrong decision to pick a fight with someone who was not afraid to fight back and fight dirty.

"I think he's had enough."

"Oh no. I'll be the one...to say...when...he's...had...enough!"

 **SMACK! SPLAT! FWICK! FWACK! CRACK!**

That last shot was a cheap one that really drove home the impression that she was not someone to be messed with. Especially late at night, in the dark, armed with a wooden spoon of all things.

"Are you finished?"

Fay straightened her bathrobe and blew a strand of hair out of her eyes before she even bothered to glare down her nose at the figure who was the source of all this commotion.

"Yes, yes I am. I'm finished with him and I'm finished with you. So goodbye and get lost."

The vampire standing in the rose bushes chuckled to himself.

"Okay, that's it! You're next! C'mere!"

He had enough sense to duck and roll as the spoon sliced through the air where he had been standing a moment before. Fay would have had a go with the antagonizing git right there out on her lawn had it not been for the timely interjection of a deep groan.

"What the?"

The vampire who was sprawled out on the floor came to his senses only to discover that he was not alone. Planted neatly on his chest was an extremely well-fed black and white tuxedo cat who clearly enjoyed the opportunity to paw at the vampire's long locks.

"Dear lord. Fat Cat get off him!" Fay groaned as the battered vampire blinked in surprise. Out of all the things that could have ended up on his chest a cat was the last thing he would have imagined.

"Beat it meatball!"

Fangs were bared at the pudgy animal and Fat Cat got the message.

"It's ok Fat Cat, it's okay. He won't hurt you." Fay clucked in reassurance as the freaked-out house cat waddled hastily to her before he decided that he would rather hide behind her legs then take another step.

"You got that wrong babe."

The vampire winced as he carefully rose to his feet. The parts of him that were not covered by his leather jacket sported some ugly looking welts and burn marks. There were large darkening bruises along his face and neck where she had nailed him good and proper. There was one particularly nasty looking mark along his hairline that he would feeling for days by the look of it.

"Babe?" Fay's eyes flashed with a hidden fire all their own. Her fingers flexed dangerously.

"Way wrong."

The long-haired vampire sent her one of those trademark evil toothy grins that was supposed to strike terror in the hearts of humans as he took a predatory step forward. Fay's expression went from irritated to stone-cold as she stood her ground. Outside the stranger had returned to his post to watch the little drama play out.

"I wouldn't do that."

"Yeah? Piss off."

 _Meeeeerrrrrrrrrr_...hiss!

Dozens of unblinking shining eyes appeared as if by some sort of magic. From under every piece of furniture, shadow, and crack they filled the living space. Cats, all colours and sizes, crouched on whatever space they could find. Ears and eyes were trained on the encroaching vampire who had enough sense to freeze where he stood. One predator surrounded by many. Vampire against felines. They just waited for him to make another move. That was all it would take to set them off.

"Are you kidding me?"

Fay arched an eyebrow.

"The Wicked Witch of the West has flying monkeys pal. I, on the other hand, have cats."

The snark in her voice was icy enough to sink the Titanic as she crossed her arms matter-of-factly.

"Ah shit."

"Ya think?"

"Mind if I come in?"

"Of course I mind. Do you honestly think that I am going to invite every vampire in the state of California to come waltzing across my doorstep? Because if you do, you have another thing coming. Hey! What are you doing?"

Fay squawked in disbelief as the second vampire stepped over the windowsill and entered her house.

"What does it look like? "I'm going to invite every vampire in California to come waltzing across my doorstep"?" He pointed out as he walked slowly toward Fay. He carefully held her spoon out as a peace offering and made damn sure not to get close to the walls or the furniture. The battalion of glittering eyes could just as easily fixate themselves on him if he made the wrong move.

"But that was in question form! Dammit!" Fay swore under her breath.

"Uh, lady? Could you call off your cats...please?"


	4. Chapter Two

The cut-eye that Fay gave the vampire who had moments before made it clear that he wanted to use her neck as a chew toy was a bitter one. One swish of her spoon and he would be nothing more than a couple of coughed-up hairballs by morning. She knew it, he knew it, and the cats knew it. But now what?

The tension between her and the motionless vampire was strong but not strong enough to set off any more internal red flags. Her borders had been breached by her own folly and the powerful wards that she had placed on her property were now too lax to be of much use in this situation. Either Fay was going to have to throw both vampires out and figure out a way to make it permanent or she was going to have to come to some sort of agreement.

Two vampires against one witch wasn't an odd she wanted to deal with right then. Even with a small army of cats at her command. That left her with one possible course of action. A truce.

With a calculating look Fay shifted her stance and took the spoon from the unnamed figure before she swung it through the air. At her signal the tension in the room began to eased by degrees as the cats slowly melted away into the darkness of the house's interior. A few stayed behind just in case, along with Fat Cat and the ever vigilant Figaro.

"Don't even think about it." Fay warned both vampires for good measure.

"The thought never crossed my mind." The blonde vampire said. "Apologies for the window."

"Yeah, well you're paying for it."

Hearing this, the vampire smiled.

"I'm David and that idiot there goes by Dwayne."

David held out a gloved hand to her.

"Fay Prima and I can't say it's a pleasure."

Fay eyed him carefully but did not return the gesture. Her arms remained firmly locked protectively across her chest.

"Wait. You're not going to kill her?"

"No I am not going to kill her."

Dwayne was surprised to the hilt when David had called him out by his actual name in front of her. That was something that just wasn't done. Not unless one of them was planning on draining her because there was a strict rule about leaving no witnesses.

The three of them just stood there awkwardly for a moment at which point Fay tucked away her spoon into a large pocket of her robe and sighed in resignation.

"Might as well sit down." She muttered as she picked up Fat Cat and sat cautiously on the arm of what was left of her couch. David chose the loveseat and made himself comfortable. Only Dwayne remained standing. His eyebrows were locked in concern and the dark look look on his face gave him the appearance of a brooding thunderhead. No self-respecting vampire barged into someone's house, introduce themselves, and then sat down to have a pleasant chat.

"So can I ask why my front window is broken? You two owe me that much." Fay asked as she wrapped her arms protectively around Fat Cat.

"Territorial dispute. I was in the middle of giving this upstart a lesson in leadership." David mused as he watched the other vampire bristle at his words.

"One that you were losing."

"On the contrary, I think it was the other way around."

"You need to get your memory checked. I clearly had the upper hand and you know it."

"You want to back up that claim?"

"You know I can."

"Prove it then."

"I'd be happy to."

Ugh, men.

As interesting as it would be to watch the two vampires growl and posture over who should rule the Santa Carla roost Fay quickly became annoyed. Neither one explained why they had been fighting it out on her front lawn of all places in the first place. She was no expert on vampire politics but it appeared that David felt threatened for the first time in years by Dwayne's arrival and this spat between them was over more than just a tiff over turf.

Fay tried to get a word in edgewise but her voice was drowned out when the word parrying was replaced with bared fangs and ugly snarls.

"Whoa! Calm down!" Fay shouted as she dumped Fat Cat and planted herself between David and Dwayne just as the two aimed to butt heads once more.

"I said COOL IT!"

Fay threw her arms out and slammed the palms of her hands into their chests as hard as she could. A crackle of charged ozone sent both vampires careening into the walls hissing out in pain.

"No fighting in this house. This is my home! If you got beef with each other you take it outside." Fay went from cat-lady to platoon commander in a split second. When vampires were involved there was only one way to diffuse a heated situation and that was with a show of some serious force.

"What was that?" Dwayne winced as he massaged his chest.

His lack of a shirt resulted in him sporting yet another unsightly token of Fay's temperamental non-affection. This one turned out to be the worst of the lot. At the rate he was going at he would end up with more black marks on his skin than a leopard if he wasn't careful.

"She's a witch you moron. She has powers." David coughed as he straightened out his coat in an attempt to regain his composer.

"Witches don't exist."

It was Dwayne's turn to scoff. He did not believe a word of it. Witches? Really? Where was the broomstick and the magic wand?

"Oh really? And vampires are just the stuff of Hollywood? Welcome to the big wide world of the supernatural. I hope you know that you guys are not the only ones who can do things right? I mean, I may not be able to fly like you do but I can certainly make myself scarce if I have to."

"And you knew." Dwayne glared at David.

"Yes I did. Santa Carla is a magnet for the supernatural scene on the west coast. We just have never had the chance to be formally introduced." He nodded to Fay.

"You can say that again."

The old fashioned Felix the Cat clock on the kitchen wall began to chime. It was four o'clock in the morning.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why aren't you afraid of us? You are way too calm about all of this. It doesn't make any sense."

This had to be the first time that Dwayne had been around a human who had seen what he was and did not run off screaming blue murder or try to shoot him. Being beaten with a piece of wood was understandable though. Wooden stake, wooden spoon, same thing.

How often did the undead knock on her door?

Fay took in a deep breath and massaged the corner of her eyes. How was she going to answer him? It was too late to get into the logistics of it all and the vampire had destroyed her living room. Why should she tell him anything?

Fine. She would take the high road and be the adult in the room. Just this once.

"Let me just start out by saying I owe you nothing and I should not even be telling you this. Vampires aren't the only ones with rules okay? Yeah, I'm not scared of you. Either of you. Why? Because I'm used to this sort of thing. And not just vampires. Zombies, werewolves, mummies, ghouls, succubi, incubi, three-headed dogs, killer rabbits...I've just about seen it all. How? I'm a Prima. That means my family and I are, you could say, different. I'm a witch Dwayne. And not the candle and bell kind. I have an aunt over in Louisiana who can raise the dead."

"Raise the dead? Really?"

Dwayne arched an eyebrow in interest. Fay nodded.

"Necromancer."

"Really?"

"Yep. Believe me when I say that she is terrifying beyond all reason."

"Hmmmm."

"So a pair of fangs isn't going to bother me. You two are not the only ones with teeth and a false face."

That last bit perked David's interest.

"Anyways it's late. I know that you two keep odd hours but I'm dead tired and you need to leave now. I would do the whole coffee/cookie thing but since you don't deserve it you don't get it. And I have to work in the morning. So whatever macho vampire issues you two have to figure out go do that. And just so you know there is no sense in trying to kill each other because it won't do either of you any good. Don't ask me how I know, I just do."

Fay motioned to the broken window with a tired wave of her hand.

"The next time you get the urge to lock horns, do it someplace else okay? I have neighbours. They talk. I'm going to have a hard enough time as it is trying to figure out how to explain why I suddenly had the urge to remodel this place in the middle of the night."

There were more questions that Dwayne wanted to ask but now was not the time. He allowed Fay to herd him toward the window while he a careful distance between them. Nothing about the house or dealing with Fay made any sense. He had every intention of finishing what he started with David but now the idea of offing the cat lady was no longer appealing. This was going to require some serious mulling over when he had the time.

"Bye."

Fay actually shooed him out of her home.

Dwayne gave Fay one last guarded look before he slipped out the window and took off into the night. David turned to say something but Fay just waved him off.

"You won't have to worry about waking up with a stake between your ribs any time soon. I have no intention of coming anywhere near you. You stick to stalking your side of town and I'll stay put in mine and we'll just forget that this even happened. Okay?"

David studied her before he nodded in agreement.

"Okay."

"And if I ever catch you anywhere near my place again I will introduce you to the big spoon. I promise you David, you do not want to see what kind of damage that thing can do."

David laughed but Fay was dead serious.

"My grandmother once took out a pack of vampires with it and then used it next day to make a cake with their ashes. She fed it to some dogs just to make sure they would never have the chance to come back."

That got David's undivided attention.

"I don't think they would have seen that one coming."

"No one ever does. Goodbye David."

David took that as his cue and vaulted out of the window.

Fay stayed put as she listened carefully for the tell-tale sound of rushing air. She wasn't disappointed. Satisfied that the neighbourhood belonged to her again she reached into her pocket and pulled out her spoon. Poor thing. The wooden head was just about burnt though and top part of the handle had turned black from where it had touched Dwayne's skin. It was ruined but it had done its job and done it well.

 _Mer?_

Fay looked down at her feet as Figaro wrapped himself around her leg for comfort. His green eyes were filled with questions.

"Looks like we're going shopping tomorrow."

The silver striped house cat purred in agreement.


	5. Chapter Three

The song that Fay dances to is called: "My Dream Come True" by _Frozen Ghost_

* * *

Things seemed to simmer down somewhat between David and Dwayne after that late night display at Fay's place. It could have been that the two vampires were slowly getting used to each other's presence. Dwayne had made it very clear that he was not about to pack up and leave. Santa Carla was prime hunting territory with a surging transient population of wayward souls that went unnoticed by the local authorities. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up and he wanted a piece of it.

David was none too happy about the situation but in the end they came to an agreement that they could both live with. They each held dominion over their own actions and territory but if called upon would defend one another from any encroaching threats that came up from Los Angeles or down from San Francisco. The Boardwalk remained under David's control while Dwayne decided to settle on the other side of the San Lorenzo River.

Their combined territory grew and borders were secured. Two sets of eyes were always better than one and Dwayne proved himself to be a notable fighter and exceptional tracker.

Not long after his arrival in Santa Carla an incident arose where a lone werewolf wandered into the nearby redwood state park and caused a bit of trouble with a few hikers. Before the authorities could call in the park rangers to hunt down what was reported to be a rabid mountain lion Dwayne had tracked and killed the half-mad mongrel. All evidence of its existence was erased, though he did keep one of its long canine teeth as a trophy. This he turned into an earring that he wore in his left ear.

As the nights grew warmer during the slow weeks of May the local scene began to slowly come to life. The vast crowds would come later in the summer but there was enough foot traffic in the downtown sector to draw Dwayne out of hiding. David had crossed his path the day before and thanked him for taking care of the stray situation. Dwayne was granted a reprieve to wander at leisure through David's area and there was even an offer to join in on a hunt if he so chose to.

He was tempted to see David in action in order to get a better sense of what the other vampire was capable of. Yet there was something else that he had to do first. It was something that lurked in the back of his mind like a growing itch he really needed to scratch.

Having purchased, in cash, a second-hand motorcycle that was designed for speed and maneuverability rather than the typical power and chrome Dwayne took to the streets in order to get a better sense of the layout of the town on the ground. He had flown over the numerous streets a fair number of times and had mapped out the majority of it in his head. Yet some things just needed to be checked out up close and one of those things was a dance studio tucked away on the second floor of a small mid-town strip mall.

 _Castilla's Dance Studio_ was easy enough to miss from street level as the design of business sign was nothing eye-catching or colourful. But there was no mistaking the music that poured through the wide glass windows of the studio. With his heightened sense of hearing being as finely tuned as it was Dwayne could hear the pounding tempo of a top forty tune before he picked up the tell-tale scent of hair spray, perfume, and sweat.

He did not pull into the studio parking lot but drove past it in order to park his bike across the street. The eight o'clock class had ended and the dancers began to leave in small groups or pairs. The chatty teenage girls gossiped loudly as they climbed into a variety of waiting cars. No one seemed to notice him as he sat watching from the shadows. Soon enough the studio lot emptied until only a small yellow two-door Ford Fiesta remained. From where he was positioned Dwayne could see a pair of yellow eyes that peered out from underneath the car. A stray cat poked its head out for a moment as it looked around before it stretched and jumped into the hood of the car.

She really did have eyes everywhere.

Dwayne mulled over this thought as his eyes drifted away from the feline sentinel. There was movement in the windows that caught his attention. A solitary figure stood in full view as the loud music died down. With her wild dark hair tied back from her face Fay looked younger than she had the last time he had seen her. The outfit was an improvement though. Tights and leg warmers in purple and blue showed off a figure that her pink bathrobe had done a decent job of hiding from view.

Fay stretched and flexed without a care. She had no idea that he was there and that was the way he wanted it. She brought her leg up and over her head in a way that Dwayne did not think was even possible as the slow strumming of guitar chords began to play.

 _Love of my life, I don't have a lot to give you._

 _What's in my heart is all that I can really give you._

 _Love, undying love is all I have._

 _A handful of words that might make you laugh..._

Dwayne sat back on the seat of his bike as he witnessed that special moment when a dancer slipped into the music and forgot the walls around them. Fay's eyes were closed the entire time as she slowly moved across the studio floor, each step a delicate balancing act on bare toes. The love ballad was embraced and recreated in a solo act that was as mesmerizing to watch as it was to preform. Fay floated along leading with her hand one moment or her head the next as her body twisted and bent into shapes that shifted into something more.

The faintest smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he watched the story she was telling play itself out. There was a longing in how her arms reached out to the empty space around her. Her torso arched and swayed with an invitation that was both innocent and sensual. She was dancing for someone she only knew in her dreams. Her feet brought her closer and also further away from reaching her desire that was just out of her reach.

When the song shifted to a deeper tempo Fay leapt into the air and twirled once, twice, three times in succession without missing a beat. Her landing shifted into a flourished twist and then she was down on the floor and out of sight. Her legs flashed behind the glass as she did a series of floor moves he could not quite make out from his vantage point. She flowed back into view at the end of the song as she wrapped her arms around herself and stilled, her head tilted back with one hand cradled against her neck. She held the pose as the song faded out to silence.

Dwayne sighed as he remembered to blink. When he looked back up at the studio Fay was still standing in full view. The only difference was that she was now staring out the window and her eyes were trained on him. He did not hesitate. He locked his gaze with hers until one of them looked away. Unlike Fay Dwayne no longer had the involuntary urge to blink so the vampire stare won the round.

Fay's eyes narrowed as she sent an angry feline hiss in his direction. Dwayne pulled his lips back and flashed his fangs in response. The startled expression on her face made him laugh out loud. Let her hiss all she wanted, she didn't own this stretch of town. Whatever agreement she had worked out with David did not apply to him because he never agreed to anything. Just as long as he kept out of her reach there was nothing Fay could do to him. So if he wanted to watch her dance he was going to do just that. He was going to figure this whole magic thing out one way or another. If it came with a show, then all the better for it.

Dwayne gave the annoyed witch a cheeky wink as he gunned the engine of his bike and pulled out onto the street. As he roared past the studio Fay did not miss her chance to get the last word in as it were. He did not miss the crude arm gesture she happily sent his way. He waved as he rode off in the direction of the Boardwalk. Maybe he would take David up on his offer after all. Dwayne was suddenly in the mood for something Italian and he had the whole night ahead to fulfill that craving.


	6. Chapter Four

The Paul/Marko Theme Song: "Heaven's On Fire" by KISS

* * *

At the start of the summer of '85, about two years before the Emersons would move to Santa Carla, everything began to fall into place. David and Dwayne were on amicable terms with each other having successfully defended their claim on Santa Carla from more than a few passing would-be hopefuls. The population of the town grew as spring gave way to summer which meant better pickings as the nomad surfer population began to climb.

Dwayne was still a persistent shadow on the edges of Fay's world. So much so that she came to expect his appearance around every shady corner or dark alleyway once the sun went down. Always armed and ready with a snarky zinger or three she never passed up the opportunity to give him a piece of her mind. Not that he ever responded in kind. Instead he would keep his distance and enjoy watching Fay get herself riled up over nothing. It came to no surprise when he discovered that he had picked up a tail in the form of a sleek orange tabby with a notched ear that he could never get close enough to catch.

It was a message. If he kept tabs on her then she would return the favour. Smart witch.

July 4th was the day that where paths finally crossed as two new variables came racing into town. No one knew it at the time but the big old wheel of Fate had started to turn. Down at the Boardwalk was where it would all play out because in Santa Carla anything worth happening always took place on the Boardwalk.

"Yo' Paul, you think we lost them?" A pair of bright baby blues glanced over the shoulder of a colourful patchwork jacket that was clearly one-of-a-kind.

Two rough-and-ready figures had roared onto the Boardwalk, careful to weave their motorcycles through the vast lumbering crowd. It was the good ol' Fourth of July and the place was packed tighter than a sardine can. It was the perfect place to blend in and hide in plain sight. That was exactly why the two young men had high-tailed it out of Los Angeles for the middle-of-nowhere summer town.

"I think so man. Don and the guys wouldn't bother coming out this far, even after a couple of no-good punks like us." Paul, the taller of the pair, flashed a crooked grin as he parked his bike by a side rail. His eyes instantly zeroed in on a pair of gorgeous bare legs that walked by him.

He let out a low whistle. Hello there!

"Yeah, but how can you be sure? I mean we're not exactly out of the state. Those guys won't stop until either we're both dead or out of the freaking country." Marko grumbled as he killed his engine and hopped off of his bike. Unlike Paul he made sure to do a quick scan his surroundings but with all the people swarming around he couldn't pick out a single face.

"Marko, dude. You seriously need to relax bro. Think of it like this. They think we're long gone and if they think that, why the hell would they bother lookin' for us so close to home? C'mon, they're meatheads, not friggin' geniuses."

Paul threw his arm around Marko's shoulders and steered him away from the bikes. Marko looked over his shoulder once more before he allowed Paul herd him into the crowd.

"I know. But I can't help think that..." Marko started before Paul cut him off abruptly.

Paul's hand grabbed Marko by the jaw and jerked his head to the side. Before Marko could protest his eyes fell on what Paul was seeing. A vision in leather. Both he and Paul stared slack jawed at the woman who had materialized in their line of sight. In what had to have been a painted on leather one piece number she left nothing and everything to the imagination. She had the eyes of a jungle cat and the body of a sinner. A cat suit never looked so damn magical as it did right then.

When she sauntered right past the two without so much as a side-glance and vanished into the crowd it took a few moments before the two friends remembered to come back down to earth.

"Huh." Paul wheezed when he remembered to breathe.

"Paul, do you think we died and reached nirvana?"

"Either that or hell is fuckin' awesome! I love this place!"

A wicked smile full of promise touched his lips as he grabbed Marko by the back of his jacket and hauled him over to border of the boardwalk. Paul leapt up onto the metal railing and scanned the crowd carefully as he scoped the direction that the mystery woman had vanished in.

"Has it ever occurred to you that maybe you don't stand a chance against that? Much less holding an intelligent conversation?" Marko pointed out as he adjusted his jacket. He couldn't help but roll his eyes at his friend's sex driven antics.

"Marko, does the phrase "divide and conquer" have any meaning to you? With a woman like that talking is the last thing on my mind." Paul squinted slightly as he tried to figure out if the leather clad figure by the carousel was the one he was looking for. Santa Carla certainly had a thing for big hair and leather because it was everywhere.

Marko just shook his head.

"You know, you don't have to nail every girl you see Paul. Maybe that's why half the women in L.A. can't stand the sight of you?"

He leaned his back against the railing and had the sudden urge to knock Paul off his perch. Before he could swipe the legs from under Paul his best friend let loose a victorious wolf howl and jumped to the ground.

"You found her?" Marko asked. There may or may not have been an eager edge in his voice.

"Let's go little bro. It's time for us to do a little hunting. C'mon!"

Paul crowed and dashed off with Marko hot on his heels. The two weaved and shouldered their way through the crowd and Paul did not bother to stop and apologize when he shoved a little kid out of his way.

"Slow down man!" Marko called out as he jumped over an upturned garbage can. He had to keep his eyes glued to the back of Paul's patched jean jacket least he lost him in the crowd.

"And give up the prize? Never!" Paul laughed and beckoned Marko to hurry up.

It was a shame that Paul did not pay attention to where he was going. Things would have turned out very differently for the both of them if he had.

"Watch it punk!" A mean voice snarled when Paul slammed into the back of another guy who materialized out of nowhere.

Marko skidded to a halt when the leather-clad stranger turned around and grabbed Paul by his shirtfront, holding him an inch away from his face.

"Yo, sorry dude! Relax man! Didn't see where I was going."

Even in a sticky situation, Paul did not lose his roguish edge that had a bad habit of landing him into even deeper trouble. Which it did, every single time.

Dwayne, who was roughly Paul's height, eyed him up and down but did not let him go.

"Hey man, I don't swing that way." Paul growled.

He brought both arms up in order to break Dwayne's hold but that quick action did diddly-squat.

Ok, so the guy was strong; there was no need to panic.

"Excuse me?" The tone sent chills running down Paul's spine. "What did you just say?"

Paul found himself dangling a foot off the ground and had to grip the Dwayne's wrist for dear life.

"Nothin' man, I said nothin'."

Paul gasped due to the fact that the hand that held him had now begun to slowly crush his windpipe. So the guy was really strong and wanted to kill him. Still there was no cause for panic.

"Really?" Came a growled response that caught Paul unaware. It was more of an angry grizzly growl than human. If there was one thing that annoyed Dwayne to the point of murder it was being interrupted while on the hunt. Especially by shit-head punks with big mouths and no sense of self-preservation

Paul's eyes widened comically as he watched the other man's eyes slowly change colour from a dark brown to a violent shade of orange and yellow.

Time to panic.

"What the fra-!" Paul yelped and kicked out. Somehow he got lucky and landed a hefty blow with his knee to crazy-eyes stomach. Instead of doubling over, Dwayne didn't even flinch. It just made him a whole lot angrier.

"Marko!"

Marko, who had been waiting for his cue to jump the dark-haired stranger from behind, tripped up when a sharp voice rang out like a whip-crack.

"Dwayne? What the hell you doing? _Put him down,_ _you_ _idiot! What are you crazy?!_ "

It was the leather-clad woman that Paul had been chasing after.

Dwayne looked over his shoulder before dropped Paul on command. He did not even bother to give Paul a second glance as his stare remained fixed on Fay who stormed over and planted herself in front of him. Even in heeled boots she was still a head shorter than he was but it was impossible to tell who was more annoyed.

Marko backed out of their way and grabbed Paul by the arm in order to haul him to his feet.

"You ok man?" Marko asked quietly as he kept a careful eye on the two unknown variables that were talking heatedly a few feet away. Dwayne stood unmoving while Fay's hands gestured as wildly as she spoke.

"Yeah...I think so." Paul coughed when he massaged his bruised throat. "Who the hell is that guy? The Hulk?"

"Who cares man. Let's get the hell out of here."

Marko tried to steer Paul away from the two but Paul refused to budge an inch. "Paul, this is no time to butt heads with the neighbourhood psycho. Come on man. She's taken, you're beat and I don't want to get my ass handed to me because of you. Come on!"

"Boys! Hold up for a second."

Fay called out as she moved away from Dwayne and hurried over to the two. Dwayne remained where he was and glared heatedly at Paul and Marko while Paul's mystery woman slowed and gave the two an apologetic smile.

"Sorry about that. That guy isn't the most stranger-friendly person around." She said as she looked Paul over quickly in order to make sure that he was not missing anything important. The darkening bruises on Paul's throat earned him a sympathetic look. "You ok?"

"Yeah, I'll live." Paul did his damned best to keep his eyes from traveling down from his saviour's face least her "friend" decided to come back and rip his face off.

"You two are new to Santa Carla, aren't you?" She arched an eyebrow. It looked like Paul fought for the south. "It's all right. I won't tell."

"Eh...sorry." Paul said sheepishly and quickly averted his eyes. But only after he gave the view the respect it was due.

Marko saw the look on Dwayne's face darken dangerously, but since the guy didn't move, he was not going to say anything.

"Yeah, we just got here." Marko spoke up in order to give Paul a chance to save face. "I'm sorry. I'm Marko and this putz here is Paul."

"A pleasure to meet you both. I'm Fay and that over guy there is Dwayne." Fay held her out her hand. Marko shook it, but Paul, for all of his accelerated sex drive, actually hesitated. Fay held back a laugh. "Don't worry as long as you're with me he won't hurt you."

Paul looked over at Dwayne, who glared steak knives at his head, and grinned a toothy grin while he shook Fay's hand. Dwayne visibly bristled but instead of tearing Paul a new hole he just turned his back on the three of them and stalked away.

"So, is he your boyfriend or something?" Paul asked, looking back at Fay.

Marko sighed. Oh Paul. Some things never changed.

"Something." Fay heard the sigh. "So what are you two doing so far from home?"

Marko and Paul exchanged a glance before Marko spoke up. "Well, it's kind of a long story."

"Ah, one of those." Fay nodded.

For all of Paul's bluster and mischievous quirks he couldn't help but stare at Fay, eyes that followed her every move. Fay noticed this because it was impossible not to and raised one hand to her hair. Paul gaze followed her hand as her fingers began to toy with a wayward curl.

"You know, I think I could do this all night and your friend here won't even notice." She said causally to Marko who couldn't help but snicker at her antics.

Paul blinked.

"What?"

He knew that he was the butt of some joke but for the life of him could not figure out what the it was.

Fay and Marko broken down laughing.

"Nothing man, it's nothing." Marko restrained himself to keep from humiliating his awe-struck friend even more. "Anyways, how about you. You live here?"

"You could say that I'm a native in these parts. Anyways gentlemen, I have to cut our introduction short. Oh don't worry Paul, it's not like I'm going to fall off the face of the planet." She said kindly when she saw the disappointed look that crossed his face. Paul blushed slightly and muttered something under his breath, embarrassed that she had seen him like that.

"Are we going to see you again?" Marko asked, looking from Paul and then to Fay.

"I'm sure you will. I live here remember?" She winked.

"Right then. I'll see you both around." Fay turned to go but turned back when she remembered something. "Let me be the first to welcome you both to Santa Carla. And just so you know that in this town, people are strange. Remember that."

There was an unreadable smile on her face as she turned and walked away. She melted seamlessly into the crowd and left Paul and Marko on their own.

"She seems nice." Marko said causally before he gave Paul a playful shove. "What the hell is up with you Paul? You acted like a complete idiot. And let me stress _idiot_."

"Marko, I just think the unthinkable happened." Paul gave his head a good solid shake.

"What?"

"I think I've just fallen for a chick. I never fall for chicks. It's usually the other way around." Paul tried to make sense of it all. "Is this normal?"

Marko smiled. "Yeah man, it's normal, but for you, it's abnormal."

Paul perked up considerably as two pert blondes that walked past them. They looked like twins.

"So, what do you want to do now?"

"Get something to eat and check out the night life in this place."

"Good plan."

And that is exactly what they did.


	7. Chapter Five

Now that Dwayne was in town David was relieved to discover that he no longer had to constantly look over his shoulder. However even he could not ignore the fact that they were still the _only_ vampires in Santa Carla. The werewolf incident had been a wake-up call and one that he was not about to ignore.

When it came down to brass tacks it was quite simple. They had gotten lucky.

The last time David had cut claws with a wolf, things had not gone all that well for him. He had barely made it through the confrontation with his limbs intact and werewolf bites were never quick to heal. Especially the severe ones. It had taken months of lurking in the bowels of the Brooklynn sewer system before he had regained enough of his strength to get the heck out of New York all together. That had been the decade when the Flower Power movement had taken the city by a psychedelic storm and he had not returned since.

Now a wolf had ventured on its own accord into what was well-known throughout supernatural communities to be a vampire state . Werewolves, especially the loners, never set foot on California soil unless they had a death wish.

This did not sit well with David. This did not sit well with him at all.

A thick cloud of smoke was carried off by high costal winds as David lit yet another cigarette. At the rate he was going at he would blaze through his second pack in less than an hour. The evening had started out wrong and it had gone downhill since. His bike was acting up and he had been too distracted by his nagging thoughts to pull off a successful kill. On top of that he had nearly been seen by a Boardwalk security guard because he had been damn well sloppy on the hunt.

Irritated was the wrong word for what was chewing his ass right then.

Dwayne's arrival had forced him to come to terms with the fact that his life as an undead bachelor was coming to a hurried end. If he hadn't pulled that Hail Mary move and pitched Dwayne through Fay's window all those weeks ago chances were that he would have lost his foothold in Santa Carla all together. Not that he would ever openly admit it to either of them. He would remove his eyeteeth before he voiced that unwilling truth.

No, if David was going to be able to hang on to Santa Carla he had to come to grips with the fact that he would not be doing it alone.

David took a long, hard drag on his cigarette. He needed to get this shit sorted out fast.

"Any prospects?" He muttered quietly into the night as he exhaled another cloud of smoke.

He was perched on the fog-shrouded rooftop of the old Walton lighthouse that hugged the furthermost point of the bay. The bright beam of light that was emitted from the massive electric bulb below pierced the thick sea mist at regular intervals.

Dwayne came to a solid landing out of the darkness overhead and crouched down beside David. His hair was a wind-blown mess and the leather jacket he wore was heavy with damp caused by the sea air.

"Can't say for sure. There might be a few but pickings aren't the greatest right now. That's the problem with down-and-out places like this. You get your trash, and then you get more trash. Especially now. Trying to find a decent candidate is like trying to find a needle in a freaking haystack."

"Tell me about it."

David took a quick drag as he reached into a coat pocket and tossed Dwayne his pack of Camels. Dwayne snagged the carton out of the air without so much as a second glance. They may have their differences, but when it came to survival, they both knew better than to bitch at each other like a pair of sorority chicks.

"Well, there were two that really pissed me off." Dwayne said after he had tapped out a cigarette.

"And that's a good thing, right?" David looked over at Dwayne with a smirk on his lips.

"One had a lot of nerve. Would have killed him if Prima Gatta hadn't gotten in the way." Dwayne muttered under his breath as he adjusted his position so that he sat cross-legged on the edge.

David's smirk grew as he watched Dwayne, reading between the lines.

"I think someone's personal territory has been crossed." He said meeting the other vampire's unblinking stare with a knowing look.

"Fuck off." Dwayne growled in a tone that clearly told David where to shove it. He tossed the pack of smokes back at the blonde vampire before he pulled a battered looking zippo lighter out of his right boot.

"Right." David mused as he took another drag. "So, who were they? Just humour my curiosity."

Dwayne shot him a skeptical look as he thumbed a small tongue of fire into existence.

"Hollywood boys. Just arrived in town." Dwayne took a quick inhale to get a solid smoke going before he snapped the lighter shut with a flick of his wrist.

"Clean?"

"Yeah. Just a pair of punks. Street smart by the look of them."

Dwayne brought up an image of Paul and Marko in his mind. The two were quiet for a few minutes as David slipped into the memory and saw the two for himself. More often than not it paid to be able to read minds and Dwayne was in a generous enough mood to allow David the rare chance to do so.

"Age wise? What do you figure? Couldn't be more than twenty, twenty-one."

David rubbed his chin with the back of his hand, thinking.

"The smaller one is probably still in his late teens. The loud mouth, I'd say twenty-two max. Don't think he'll live much longer the way he's going." Dwayne said. There was a slight hint of bitterness in his voice when he spoke those the last words.

"You like them?"

"Hell no." The other vampire stated at once.

"Good. I want to meet them." David said as he rose to his feet in one fluid motion. He was completely unconcerned about the high winds that tried to dislodge him from his perch.

"What? For hells sake why?" Dwayne growled as he rose to his feet as well.

"Well, for one thing, if they've managed to piss you off then they are worth a look at. They have something to them that struck some sort of emotional chord with you, good or bad. They could be trash, as you say, or they could be just what we're looking for. Secondly, it'll have to wait, seeing that dawn is about twenty minutes away."

David looked off toward the horizon.

"You're a bastard David, do you know that?" Dwayne said quietly and shook his head. He took one last inhale before he tossed the still-smouldering cigarette into the mist.

"You're not the first to say that." David chuckled as he gave Dwayne a solid slap on the back before vanishing with a flap of his thick trench coat.

Dwayne scowled. Nothing had been engraved in stone. But he would not put it past David. Those two idiots at the Boardwalk were now destined to shake hands with the devil with the bright blue eyes. Sucks to be them.

Dwayne inhaled sharply before he let loose a deep-throated roar that carried on the wind. The ocean responded with a sharp hiss of warning as a rough wave collided into the rocky cliff face below.

 _Stay away._

Yeah, fat chance.


	8. Chapter Six

"Waddaya think 'bout this one?"

Paul inspected himself from various angles in a tall three-sided mirror. It was tucked way at the back of a vintage clothing shop that had caught his eye. The place was packed to the rafters with of colourful castoffs from bygone eras. Finding a new jacket that could appease Paul's carefully guarded vanity was proving to be rather difficult however.

Hence jacket number fifty six...or was it fifty seven?

Marko eyed the fringed suede jacket that Paul wore and winced. No amount of dirt or axle grease would ever make that thing sociably acceptable. It should have remained buried in the mud at Woodstock where it belonged back in the Sixties.

"Are you John Lennon?"

"No."

"Then?"

"Fine."

Off went jacket and onto the ever growing pile of gaudy failure.

"Listen man. We've been here for over nearly two hours. Will you make up your mind and pick one? Just not the one that makes you look like Liberace. No one needs to see that."

Marko shifted in his seat. The worn armchair that he was draped over was starting to feel its age and Marko's backside was suffering for it.

"Dude you complain worse than my mother. Here, what about this one?" Paul scoffed as he grabbed a heavy satin-lined black trench coat off a rack and whirled it on with plenty of flare to spare.

"Paul you don't even know your mother. And no, that makes you look like an undertaker. What are you, goth now?" Marko chuckled as he began to toy with a loose thread on his cuff.

"Figure of speech man."

Paul could not decide whether or not he dug the whole solemn dead-guy look. This one he seriously considered as a contender but after a few minutes of hemming and hawing he shook his head and the trench coat joined the other discarded hopefuls on the floor.

"C'mon Paul, just pick one already! We're burning precious partying time. There's a bash that is going down over at the docks and we are stuck in here. What gives?" Marko hoisted himself out of the chair and rifled through the other jackets that had yet to be tried on.

"Hell man, do you think I'm enjoyin' this? I'd rather be out there getting hammered, but when it comes to getting a new set of threads man, you gotta be careful with what you wear."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Here man, try this one on."

Marko randomly selected a tailored black tuxedo jacket with tails and tossed it over to his best friend.

"Who's gettin' married?" Paul arched an eyebrow.

"No one you moron. Just try it on. Trust me, ok?" Marko said, motioning Paul to put the jacket on so that they could get the hell out of there. Neither of the two paid any attention to the tinkling chime that accompanied the opening of the shop's front door. Paul gave Marko a "yeah right" look before he put the jacket on. He took a moment to adjust the sleeves before he looked in the mirror.

He liked what he saw staring back at him through the glass.

"Not bad, not bad."

He slowly turned in a circle, eyeing every aspect of the outfit. It was different, that was for sure, and it hugged his shoulders perfectly. "Do you think it makes me look sophisticated?"

"I think it makes you look like you're going to prom. If you guys ever went to prom." Said a voice from behind a rack of reduced bohemian chic items that only the beach bums would ever consider purchasing.

Both boys turned and came face to face with a smiling Fay. Sans cat suit this time but Paul dug the torn denim and leather jacket look she had going on. If it was possible her hair was even larger than the last time he had seen her and probably twice as flammable.

"Hey! Fay! Waddaya say girl? What rock have you been livin' under?" Paul exclaimed as a huge grin plastered itself onto his face. His arms engulfed her in a bear hug before she had the chance to duck out of the way.

"I missed you too Paul. Hey Marko, how's it going?" She said as she slapped Paul playfully on the arm so that he wouldn't flatten what hours of teasing had achieved.

Marko grinned and ran a hand through his hair. "Perfect timing."

"Oh?" Fay said, giving Paul a sidelong glance. "Do I want to know why?"

"In all probability, no." Marko smile while Paul gave himself a couple of sidelong glances in the mirror.

"You going to pay for that or are you waiting for it to go out of fashion before you walk out of here?" Fay teased as she stepped forward to adjust the collar, smooth out the shoulders and gave it a critical once over. "I must say, it actually works for you. You are no Fred Astaire but it suits."

"Thanks." Paul preened. First complement of the evening.

"So how you been Fay? We haven't seen you in ages. Is Dwayne still sulking in the shadows?" Marko asked as he shoved Paul toward the cash register at the front so that he and Fay could catch up.

"Dwayne? Nah, I have no idea where he is. Me, just the same old. You know how it is." Fay gave Marko a tired smile.

"Yeah but what is the same old? You look exhausted Fay." He said as he kept Paul within sight. He did not know how Fay would feel if Paul just simply walked out of the store leaving it missing an eighty dollar jacket.

"Well," Fay scratched absently at her neck, "things have been sort of hectic lately. With work and everything. I actually got an audition for a touring Broadway musical that's coming to LA soon. Can you believe it? I've been busting my butt trying to prepare a routine for it and then there are the dance classes and the community and other things...it's been interesting."

"An audition? That's killer news Fay! I never knew you were an actor." Marko gave her a congratulatory high-five.

"No, I'm no actor. Do I look like one to you? With this hair? Nah, I dance Marko. And I can sort of sing...a little. So I figured why not take a shot at it? I won't get big time but at least it's something different. I really don't want to end up teaching ballet steps to a bunch of eight year olds for the rest of my life."

"Do what for the rest of your life? What did I miss?" Paul appeared behind Fay and propped an arm on her shoulder. Fay had not heard him approach and jumped a mile which caused Paul to smile all the more for having startled her. Heh, scaredy-cat.

"Jesus Paul don't do that." Fay swatted at him with her manicured nails. But it was all in good fun.

"Fay's a dancer Paul. She's gonna take a shot at stardom in some big Broadway thing." Marko said as the three of them headed for the door.

"You dance?" Paul looked down at her with renewed interest.

"Not that kind of dancing Paul." Fay rolled her eyes as she pushed the door open and stepped outside.

"How did she know that?" Paul shot Marko a strange look.

"Know what?" Marko asked, half in/half out of the door.

"That I was imagining her pole dancing." He said slightly disturbed.

"Paul, man. Really? You are about as easy to read as a friggin' Playboy magazine. C'mon."

Marko stepped out of the shop. Paul stared after him and shrugged. Whatever.

"So boys, you doing something tonight other than shopping?" Fay asked when Paul finally joined them on the sidewalk.

"Well, there was this..." Marko started but Paul cut him off.

"There's this rockin' party down at the docks that's goin' on right now. Marko and I were just headin' over there. Why, you lookin' for a good time?"

Paul was on her right side while Marko took up position on her left, neatly sandwiching her between the two of them. Fay being five foot whatever because of all that hair looked rather small walking next to the guys. But it didn't seem to bother her. There were other ways of defying gravity besides hair and heels.

"I'm always looking for a good time Paul. But what I'm really looking for is some good music." Fay purred quietly as she sidestepped Paul. When he looked behind to see where she had gone he found her walking on the wooden railing that ran the length of the pier.

"Whoa, careful girl. You fall and it's gonna hurt." Paul said, both eyebrows somewhere hidden in his bangs as he watched Fay pad past him with tiny precise cat-like steps without wavering once.

Fay flashed him a mischievous grin before she leapt up and over in a tight half-twist before she landed in front of them and bowed.

Marko gaped at what he had just witnessed. Paul just stared, not quite sure about what just happened.

"How...how did you do that?"

Marko asked as he looked to Paul and then back at Fay.

"When you wear point shoes every day for hours on end you learn how to walk on your toes. Balance is an essential part of dancing. Without it, you're a lame duck." She said simply as she threaded her arms through theirs.

"You sure you weren't raised in a circus? Because that wasn't dancing."

"Funny you should say that Paul. My grandmother, bless her, actually worked for Ringling Brothers back in the forties...she was a lion tamer."

"Hot damn grandma!"

Classic Paul response.

"That she was. You should see her outfits. They were something special. But why don't we go and check out this party first? If it's no good we'll just find another one. This is Santa Carla. There's always a party going on, no matter what time it is." Fay looked up at Paul and then at Marko with a raised eyebrow.

"What are we waitin' for then? Let's get outta here." Paul hooted and took the lead. The two friends looked at each other and gave themselves a mental high five. The night was young as so were they. Let the good times roll!

"So which of these crotch rockets are yours?" Fay asked when Paul led them to the spot where they had parked their bikes alongside a host of others.

"That would be your chariot right over there m'lady." Paul said as he gestured toward his motorcycle with a flourished wave of his hand.

"Tell me Marko, is Paul always this chivalrous?" Fay asked as she inspected the ride that was Paul's pride and joy before she carefully climbed onto the back of it with some misgiving. Paul swung his leg over the machine without a care, straddling it with pride, while Fay adjusted her seat so that she was as balanced as she could be. The bike wasn't designed to be a two-seater so Fay had no choice but to wedge herself as close to Paul as humanly possible.

"Chivalrous? Ha! He doesn't even know the meaning of the word." Marko cackled as he hopped onto his own bike and kicked it to life. Paul's bike responded with a throaty growl of its own. The two guys cackled like a pair of crones while Fay muttered under her breath.

"Men...typical."

Without any warning Paul pulled away from the curb and shot down the street, a little too fast to be legal. Fay squeaked in alarm as she dug in her nails and clung to him for dear life which was something Paul clearly enjoyed if the look in his eyes was anything to go by.

"You did that on purpose." Fay growled as she prodded him in the stomach with the sharp curve of a fingernail. Minutes later the three were long gone even before the dust had a chance to settle.


	9. Chapter Seven

Weaving through the evening traffic was an urban art form that Paul and Marko had perfected, much to Fay's dismay. An acrobatic duo of chaos on wheels the two wild boys leap-frogged each other as they raced toward the entrance of the docks. Neck and neck they detoured off the main thoroughfare and headed straight for the beach. Sand flew in every direction as they tore past a number of bonfires that dotted the surf line. They rode like maniacs. They rode without fear. Nothing could touch them when they were in perfect sync like this.

Fay would have marvelled at the spectacle had her nerves not been on a knife's edge. It was not hard to remind herself to never ask for a lift from either of the two again. For Paul and Marko this was what living life was all about. To Fay it was sheer lunacy. Did they have a death wish? Probably.

Did they care? Hell no!

"What's the matter Fay? Afraid of a little speed?" Marko called out as he swerved around a large piece of driftwood before coming up on Paul's right.

" _Ma che cazzo fai! Paul, tu sei pazzo!_ "

Fay swore a mean streak in Italian that made Paul laugh. He had no idea what she said but Fay had a set of claws on her that he could feel through the thick fabric of his new jacket. The higher the speed gauge climbed the harder she dug them into his chest and he was not about to complain. Far from it.

"Live hard. Die young and leave a good lookin' corpse!"

Paul threw his head back and howled into the wind for the thrill of it. Marko let loose a wild rebel yell all his own in response. Fay gritted her teeth and clung to Paul for dear life.

"Where did you say this thing was?!" Fay had to yell above the whistling wind to make herself heard.

"Pier side. You can hear the music from here!" Paul answered back as the bikes ate up the distance across the sand. There was a thrumming pulse beat in the air that was out of time with the high growls of the twin engines. A serious sound system had to have been set up in order to achieve that level of bass-line intensity.

Marko took lead as he opened the throttle and tore ahead of Paul. If there was anything amiss with what he found up ahead it would be easier for him to maneuver across the sand dunes since he wasn't carrying a second. Paul cut his speed and hung back so that Marko would have enough time to scope out the scene and give the all clear. They lived for the thrill but they knew better than to charge pell-mell into a situation without knowing the basics.

"What's up?" Fay asked.

"Just checkin' to make sure it's worth our time."

What he didn't mention was that he and Marko were ever on the alert for any familiar faces that they wanted to avoid at all cost. Fay rolled her eyes and rested her chin against his shoulder until the all clear was given.

"Whatever you say." She huffed and blew a strand of Paul's dirty blonde hair out of her face.

When the trio finally made their arrival, the party was well under way. Music blared in the high decimals, numerous kegs were tapped and flowing freely while party goers staggered around in drunken debauchery as they partied on.

"Now this is what I call a party."

Paul's eyes shone as he took in the sight. He edged his bike to a stop on the crest of a small sand dune that overlooked the bacchanalia like festivities below. It was pure Eighties wild times glory. There was nothing kosher about what was going on around that central massive bonfire. Snow, grass, booze, and babes. With a hot chick on the back of his bike and his best friend at his side, Paul could not have been happier. It brought an honest-to-goodness tear to his eye.

"Holy...some spread." Marko whistled as he parked his bike beside Paul and Fay. "So, we just going to sit here and watch?"

"Oh hell no little bro." Paul lowered the kickstand and dismounted.

"You two are lunatics. Do you know that?" Fay gingerly slid off the bike. "I appreciate the life but next time I'm walking."

Marko and Paul exchanged a look that clearly showed that they were up to no good while Fay's back was turned.

"C'mon girl!"

One-minute Fay was upright and the next she found herself flat on her back with both boys sprawled on top. Marko rolled off Paul's legs having caught in him a low tackle that sent them all sprawling into the seagrass.

"Jeez, nice goin' man." Paul muttered as he spat out sand.

"What a hero." Fay hooted and pushed Paul off before he could make himself comfortable.

Ever the wingman Marko just smiled. Paul rolled his eyes before he playfully kicked sand into Marko's carefully coifed curls.

"Dude! Not the hair!"

"Serves you right. But I have to say I'm enjoying the view from down here."

It was Fay's turn to give a dramatic eye-roll as she sat up and fluffed out her own teased curls for good measure.

"Well take a good look because that's all you're getting."

"Oh yeah? Wanna bet?"

"Paul, never bet against the house. She always wins."

Paul plucked a long blade of dry grass out of the sand and stuck it in his mouth in a rather suggestive manner. Fay sniffed primly but the side glance she gave Paul did not go unnoticed.

"Is it just me or is that a cute brunette pixie over by the stereo checking you out Marko? Why don't you go say hi?" Fay peered over her shoulder and pointed the girl out.

Marko raised his head and had to squint to make out what Fay was looking at. Her night vision was certainly better than his but there was certainly someone backlit by a fire pit that caught his attention. As for hair colour Marko had no idea how Fay could make that out from that distance. Still, she looked cute and that was all he needed.

"Well, you know me. I hate to disappoint."

Dusting himself off Marko rolled to his feet and left the two lying in the sand as he made a beeline toward the group of party goers that had set up camp around a large keg.

"Yeah, don't we know it." Paul muttered under his breath. Fay smacked him lightly on the arm. "What?"

"Very funny."

"Aw c'mon girl. It was just a joke."

"Yeah and I'm laughing. Honestly Paul this hair gets wet and I'm taking it out on you. Remember that." Fay shifted to her feet in order to wipe off wet sand that clung to her thighs. Paul admired the damp patch it left behind that darkened her acid wash jeans in a neat little heart pattern right on her backside. His gaze shot up when she turned around to face him.

"So what is up with you two? You still owe me a story remember?" Fay shook out her hands, not at all caring if Paul got sand in his face.

"You sure you wanna hear it?" Paul asked as he stretched himself out and propped himself up on his elbows. Might as well get comfortable.

"Yes, I do but hold that thought." Fay replied. "Beer?"

Paul nodded.

"Heck yes."

"Be right back."

Twin red solo cups brimming with bargain barrel suds made an appearance in record time as Fay carefully navigated her way to and from the fountain of easy youth without spilling any along the way. From what she had seen Marko was getting on very well with the elf-like beach waif that was braiding something into his long curls while he enjoyed a few of her charms. Good. It was about time he had some fun without someone standing over his shoulder all the time.

"Voila! The beer, it is brought. Now tell me everything from the beginning."

Fay passed one of the cups to Paul before she sunk down into the sand beside him. Paul took a heady pull of his beer without stopping for breath while Fay wrinkled her nose at the yeasty smell. She had no idea how he managed to down it without gagging. The stuff was like pig swill. Give her a nicely aged bottle of California red any day.

Fay managed a few dedicated sips before she shook her head and handed her drink over to Paul who was more than happy to oblige. A comfortable moment passed between them before Paul was ready to speak. Fay was all ears when he finally cleared his throat.

"When we were kids, we lived on the same street in one of the rougher suburbs of L.A. I was basically dumped on my aunt's doorstep when I was six so I don't really remember much about my parents other than my father ran off years before and my mother couldn't give two honest shits about me. Whatever. Marko's family lived a few houses down. He's the oldest of six kids you know. All sisters. His parents are good people, poor as dirt but they never asked for anything in return. I've lost count of how many times I've couch surfed at their place over the years. When Marko was fourteen though his mom got sick. Fuckin' leukaemia. The worst shit happens to the best people. She was a gem. It wasn't fair but it fell to him and his dad to keep the family going when she died. He won't talk about it but he took it hard. He was close to her y'know?"

Fay swallowed hard. That was a history that hit a little close to home but she said nothing as Paul continued.

"I can't even imagine what that's like. He dropped outta school when he turned sixteen. Wanted to get a job to help out his old man. I dropped two years earlier 'cause I just wanted to get the hell out of there. Higher education was never my scene. Can't sit still long enough to read a book, never mind study for a test. So I shipped out of my aunts' and holed up in a real roach hole with a few other guys from the scene. It was rough going but at least the rent was cheap."

Paul took a long, hard swallow of his beer as he began to draw various designs in the sand with a finger.

"Ever since we were kids Marko always tagged along after me. My own little shadow. He was a gutsy little punk, following me into all kinds of shit. Brothers in arms kinda thing. A few times we got ourselves into some pretty tight corners but we always had each other's back and we've been able to survive like that."

"So what changed?"

"A couple of weeks ago we had a run in with a few people that we hate beyond all reason. Trust me, they feel the same way about us. Hell, it was over the stupidest thing, but it didn't matter. Let's just say things got pretty heated and we had to get out of the city fast. So that's why we're here in this place of all places."

Paul lifted his head to see what Marko was up to. He did not have to worry. It was clear that Marko was more than a little busy and did not want to be interrupted.

"So that explains it. The whole dynamic duo vibe I mean." Fay mused as she tugged at a buckle on her jacket.

"Yeah. Me and Marko are like brothers. I never had a family and his sort of adopted me into theirs. I was never a stray to them. I owe his old man a helluva lot and feel god awful about hightailing it out of Los Angeles without giving him a heads up. But it was either get lost quick or a closed casket funeral."

"Have you at least called his family to let them know that you're both still alive?" Fay watched Paul's face closely.

"Yeah. Didn't go over so well. But at least he knows and Marko can keep going with a somewhat clear conscious for a little while longer. The truth is Fay I don't know how long we're going to be here. It might be a good while before we can go back." Paul confessed while he erased the doodles with a swipe of his hand and sat up.

"Don't be too hard on yourself Paul. Shit happens to everyone."

"Yeah, it does. And I don't want it to happen to him. It's my fault we're in this mess and I won't drag him down with me if it comes it. He's a punk but a good kid Fay. He deserves more than this."

Fay tilted her head slightly as she regarded Paul for a moment. "And you don't?"

"Naw. Live fast, die young, leave a good lookin' corpse and have a hell of a time doin' it. That's my motto. Don't let the smile fool you girl. I am no saint."

"We're all sinners Paul. Some of us are just better at hiding it." She gave him a reassuring smile. "Give it time and see how it plays out. You just need a little patience and some faith."

"Patience is nil and faith is non-existent."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that. You never know how these things will turn out."

"I don't?"

"Are you psychic?"

"Nope."

"Then you'll just have to trust me on this. I know things."

Paul's bright flash of teeth was borderline deviant when she tapped him on the nose with a finger for good measure. Paul didn't give it a second thought. Story time was over and he was done with sitting around.

"You wish."

He reached over and snagged Fay around her waist in order to sling her over his shoulder before she could react. Fay screeched in surprise and squirmed like a live wire but Paul's arms were locked and there was no escaping his grip.

"Paul! What are you-… You put me down!" She cawed as he stood up and headed toward the surf line.

"You sure about that?" He laughed and gave her pert backside a solid smack. The sea spray tickled the back of Fay's exposed calves when a decent sized wave rolled across the sand.

"Don't you dare! Paul!"

Fay's legs flailed as Paul spun around as if he were going to chuck her straight into the Pacific.

"Nice night for a swim!"

"PAUL!"

Fay's cat-like screech made him wince but he did not let her go. He knew better than to tempt fate so instead of dunking her straight into the ocean he flipped her back onto her feet just as another wave came crashing in and they both got tagged by the spray.

"Are you kidding me!" Fay crow-hopped out of the water like a scalded cat while Paul just laughed and chased after her. The water never bothered him any. He caught up with her before she could make it back to the safety of sand dune and cleverly side-stepped a swipe of those painted nails.

"You know, you're cute when you're pissed off."

Fay hissed in soggy annoyance and Paul's response was a gruff bark that made her snicker.

"Is that a fact?"

"Yes ma'am."

"I'm also very dangerous I'll have you know."

"Sure you are. All five foot four of you."

At his height Paul stood a head above Fay which forced her to tilt her chin up in order to pin him with one of her looks. However all she saw was that mischievous devil-may-care smile of his that made it near impossible to stay mad at. Worked like a charm every damn time.

"You don't believe me?"

"Sure I believe you. But I also believe that you won't mind it if I do this."

His actions were polished glass as he dipped his head and caught Fay's lips with his own. He teased and Fay responded not with a knee to his groin but with her hands sliding into his hair. A purr hummed in her throat that garnered an instant reaction from Paul and a playful nip on her lower lip sealed the deal. Paul was granted permission to discover just how far he would be allowed to go and he went for it.

"Look out!"

A clear shout from the direction of the bonfire jolted him back into the present before the kiss could deepen into something more.

But Marko's warning came too late.

A solid grip ripped Paul off his feet before a fist ploughed into his face with enough force to stun on impact. Paul hit the sand and saw stars before he even knew what struck him.

Leather clad and wind torn Dwayne stood over Paul like a cold sentinel with dead eyes that held nothing but malice. A gust of easterly wind off the oceanfront pulled at his long hair and Fay gaped, speechless, as reality finally caught up. Dwayne was going to murder Paul right then and there in front of everyone if she did not do something to stop him.

"What the HELL is your problem!"

Fay spat tacks as she sprang into action and planted herself between Paul and the expressionless vampire. What good that would do she had no idea but her body was moving on instinct while her mind tried to make sense of what she was seeing. Dwayne's marrow freezing glare shifted to her face and what Fay saw reflected in those dark eyes of his made her take a half-step back.

"Why are you here Dwayne?"

Fay kept her voice low and even as the hair along her arms and the back of her neck stood on end. Every survival instinct that was hot-wired to her brain urged for her to turn tail and run like hell but for Paul's sake she refused to back down. She was on vampire turf and had no power here. If Dwayne wanted Paul dead there was next to nothing that she could do about it. No spoon, no cats, nothing. All she had to work with was her nerve and if there ever was a time to summon the feline cavalry now would have been it.

"Move."

That one word made Fay hiss in fear. Dwayne snarled back in a tone so low she barely heard it over the sound of the crashing waves. His dark eyes slid back to Paul who tried to get to his feet, a bit dazed from the blow.

"Not on your life you leech."

Fay had a card up her sleeve to play and she was ready to throw it down as best she could. Her words came out in a grating growl of warning as the muscles in her legs tightened. She had one clear shot at Dwayne's face that she could take but if she missed Paul was done for. Heck they would probably both end up dead but she had to try.

Like a cat on the hunt Fay's pupils dilated out as she tensed for the spring but Marko came sprinting out of the darkness behind Dwayne at full tilt before he launched himself onto the vampire's back with enough force that he managed to knock Dwayne off centre.

"Marko no!"

Marko had no idea just what he was up against but no second thought was given as he wrapped his arms around Dwayne's neck in a solid choke hold. There was nothing he would not do for Paul and grappling a vampire was part of it. The initial surprise of Marko's attack only lasted a moment but Paul threw himself into the fray before Marko's grip on Dwayne's neck weakened.

"Leave them alone! Marko let go! Stop it!"

Fay shrieked at that god-awful pitch of hers that was loud enough to catch the attention of the partygoers but no one gave her words any heed as lips split and ribs fractured. Things would have gotten very ugly very quickly if it had not been for a commanding voice from the shadows that halted all four of them in their tracks.

"What is going on here?"

Black clad and platinum hued David appeared out of nowhere, as if by some involuntary magic. He stalked toward the brawling trio with a deliberate calm in each step. Dwayne slowly took his attention off Paul as he turned his head, which was no easy task since Marko's full weight hung off his neck. Paul did not dare move. He had no way of knowing if this new arrival was either good news, bad, or something worse entirely. Instead he stood there, bent nearly backwards, because Dwayne's fist painfully gripped his scalp.

It was Fay who finally spoke up.

"I don't really know. Dwayne just showed up…and why are you here?"

Fay was so nervous she almost stuttered. The feisty Italian witch was as jittery as a spastic house cat instead of her usual snarky self. The tell-all was when her arms immediately crossed protectively over her chest. The situation had just gone from bad to worse with David's unexpected arrival. Alarm bells were going off inside her head and that made her twitchy. The vampire's very presence made her skin crawl under her clothes but it was an itch she did not dare scratch just yet.

David simply ignored Fay entirely as he took a long moment to size up the situation.

Fay wanted to gag from burning feeling that landed in her stomach like a hot stone. Any magic user worth their talent knew to never ignore gut instinct. The eyes and mind could always be tricked but the gut never lied. To Fay it suddenly reeked of dead things. Deceit and dark doings that had nothing to do with the dead fish and rotting seaweed smell that permeated the air. Or did it?

What had her grandmother always told her? Vampires. Nothing but tricks and falsehoods. Never ever trust a blood eater. Master of lies and friend to no one. The only good vampire was a non-existent one. Dead was never good enough.

Though his gaze strayed across the beach David took everything in and finally exhaled.

"Let them go."

Dwayne refused to move.

"There are people watching." David spoke quietly, his eyes finally fixing themselves onto the other vampire. He was not going to repeat himself.

Dwayne glowered but finally he relaxed his grip. It irked him to no end at being told what to do by an equal but this was David's turf and his word was final.

Fay hurried over to make sure that Marko was still in one piece before she turned her attention to Paul. Clever fingers quickly discovered what she could not see immediately. Two of his ribs felt like they could be cracked thanks to a solid hook that Dwayne had driven into him. Paul was damn well lucky that nothing had shattered and punctured something vital from the hit. Had Dwayne used his full strength no amount of emergency care would have been able to save the blonde metalhead.

"That's the second time that guy has done this to me." Paul bristled in anger but he did not dare make a show of it. Instead he turned his frustration on the stranger that had saved his neck in the nick of time.

"Listen man, thanks and all, but you really need to keep your boy here on a tight leash. He's out of his freakin' mind!"

"Don't worry. It won't happen again."

David sized Paul up with that cryptic stare of his. When their eyes finally met Paul was unable to suppress a shiver that raced up his spine. It felt like he was trying to stare down a waiting cobra. Merciless. Fathomless. Deadly. Hypnotic.

"You two must be Paul and Marko. Dwayne has told me quite a bit about you both."

"He has?" Fay piped up which snapped Paul out of a thousand yard stare. The look Fay gave Dwayne was beyond piercing but Paul didn't catch it in time.

"Yes. You weren't there." David voice carried an edge that was impossible to ignore. Paul and Marko shared a suspicious look before David stepped forward and extended his hand to them.

"Apologies. I'm David and you've already met Dwayne. Sorry about all that. He has a hair-trigger temper as you can probably guess and doesn't like strangers." He smiled as he used a somewhat friendlier tone of voice. Maybe it was a trick of the shadows but David seemed younger and less threatening than he had a moment ago.

No one noticed the subtle flash of colour that crept into Dwayne's eyes as David's kept his full attention on the two friends.

"Yeah." Marko shook David's hand. "Thanks for stepping in there. Talk about good timing."

"Don't mention it." David said with a smirk as a fat hand-rolled joint and a lighter appeared in his gloved hands. "Care for a hit?"

"You serious?"

"Consider it a peace offering. You both look like you could use it. Especially Paul. That has to hurt."

Marko eyed the proffered toke with a guarded expression. This seemed a little too friendly for a guy who looked like he could be using something stronger than grass. But David was right. Paul felt as rough as he appeared. Busted lip and a few fractured ribs were nothing to sneer at. Judging by the growing ache in his left eye it was going to be black and swollen shut in less than an hour thanks to Dwayne's iron fists.

"Like a mean mother." Paul growled darkly as he nodded his head. If Paul gave the all clear than Marko was good for it. He took what David offered and passed it to Paul. It was only fair that he got to blaze first.

As the three lit up Fay was ready to call David out. There was only one reason that Fay could think of that a vampire like David would ever bother to make small talk with a pair of unknowing that conniving snake-eyed son of a -

"What is he planning?" Fay whirled on Dwayne as he tried to come up behind her. His face gave nothing away but thankfully the hellish tint had finally left his eyes.

"Nothing."

"Bullshit!"

Fay flexed her fingers while Dwayne remained silent.

"I can feel it in my bones. Out of all the wayward souls in this town he suddenly decides to take an interest in the ones I happen to like? Well, here's a news flash you bloodsucking dirtbag. It's not going to happen. Not to those two. I won't allow it."

Her eyes narrowed into the thinnest of slits as she attempted to sidestep Dwayne but he shifted to the side and stood in her way.

"Move it Dwayne."

Instead of giving her an answer he simply mirrored her movements with such effortless precision that Fay could not find a way around him. Even if she had attempted to climb over him he would have stopped her. His stoic persistence irked her to the point of mindless frustration which was exactly what he was hoping for. Distracted by the walking wall that was Dwayne's body Fay did not realize that he managed to herd her away from the others while she cussed him out in her mother's tongue. He may not have understood half of what she spat but he got the basic idea. The angry waltz carried on at a steady pace until Fay finally stopped and had to take a deep breath to regroup herself. This was getting her nowhere.

"Dwayne. I will say this only once. If you value the skin you're wearing you will step aside now and let me pass."

The only movement from Dwayne was his hair as a surface gust blew toward them off the water.

"I have a spoon with your name carved on it you son-of-a-bitch and I swear on my grandmother's grave that the next time I see you I will ram it so far up your ass you'll choke on it before you die!"

That wasn't a threat but a promise.

Dwayne noted the rising emotion behind her words but he refused to give her what she wanted. His silence affected her more than anything he could say and they both knew it. Let her curse him all she wanted to. Dire threats and an iron will was not going to win this round. Dwayne would not back down and Fay finally understood why. Every minute spent away from Marko and Paul was another minute that allowed David to get in close.

"How could you? He wouldn't have cared less if you hadn't brought them to his attention."

There were angry tears in Fay's eyes at this point but Dwayne showed no remorse. He just stood there, watching her.

"You did this. To get to me. Didn't you?"

Fay knew she was right. At some level Dwayne was getting off on this. What did he want her to do? Beg? Would that even do anything?

"He's already made up his mind."

She let out let out an half-choked huff when he finally spoke. The Prima Family had very clear ground rules laid out concerning interactions with vampires. No Prima could or should ever interfere with the members of the Undead unless a family member's life was at risk. Other than by blood or marriage the Primas protected their own. _Della Famiglia per la Famiglia_. Of the Family for the Family

This was out of her hands now.

"To hell with you! With all of you!"

The only thing she could do now was leave. It hurt like a knife to heart but she had to go. She did not want to be around to see how it would all come to an end. That was something she did not think she was strong enough to bare. Fay threw her hands up and shook her head. Her wild hair fanned out like a lion's mane but at that moment she was anything but. She was not her grandmother.

"I won't forget what you did."

She gave him one last look of disgust before she turned her back on the vampire without thinking. It would be the last time she ever broke that rule but it was going to be a lesson she learned the hard way.

As Fay tried to get an idea of just where she ended up the shadowed planes of Dwayne's forehead shifted. He moved in absolute silence as his predatory vision locked onto Fay's retreating form. He was quick and came at her from behind but at an angle that made it possible for his arms to lock around her torso and pull her off her feet in one swift move.

He took the full brunt of the blow that Fay dealt him out of instinct. Her nails hooked into his skin and tore bleeding furrows across the right side of his face at such speed that he had to admire her tenacity. When she opened her mouth to scream he forced the air out of her lungs by tightening his hold. Fay may have been a witch but she felt all human and humans were very easy to break.

Fay couldn't speak. She couldn't breathe. All she could do was glare at the hellscape that was Dwayne's true form. The crashing sounds of the surf was the last thing she heard before the lack of oxygen to her brain finally became too much. Fay's head rolled back exposing the soft line of her neck as her body finally went limp. Out cold and at the mercy of a vampire Fay was beyond help or rescue.

It would be so easy for Dwayne to snap that delicate neck and leave her body for the tide to take care of. Or better yet, have a taste of the one thing that had eluded him for weeks. It was all there just below the surface of her skin and the temptation was intoxicating. The taste of the salt from the sea air on her throat spiked the never-ending hunger craving that clawed at his gut in painful spasms. One slip of his elongated fangs and the artery would be severed. It was all so deliciously easy.

 _STAY AWAY!_

A distinctive voice, a snarling gust of air, roared through his head as an unnaturally powerful gale of wind slammed into him from all sides. Teeth bared and eyes on fire Dwayne staggered under the sudden onslaught with the unconscious Fay clutched possessively in his arms. There was no one out there on the beach. No way to pinpoint the source.

Dwayne snarled and the wind responded, full of warning and promise.

 _Stay away!_

It hissed at him this time, venomous in the subtle texture of the retreating waves that pulled his attention away from the witch. Dwayne stood his ground and glared at the water. His fangs gleamed with promise but this time they were not directed at the figure in his grasp.

 _Stay…away…Fay…stay away…_

Dwayne had heard the voice of the ocean speak to him before. He had passed it off as his ears playing tricks on him. But now it was back and it was angry. His eyes dimmed before they went completely dark as his face shifted back to his human visage. The hunger that trigged the attack was still there, deep within, but there was something new that influenced his actions now. Curiosity and fascination.

"The waves speak your name?"

He looked at her face as if the answers he was looking for could be found there. Instead there was nothing but salt and blood.

"Who are you Lady?" He murmured in her ear. Fay gave no response but he could feel the steady pulse of her heartbeat against his cold bare skin. Fine then. Fay would not be harmed. But he still had to make sure that she would be unable to meddle with David's carefully laid plan once she came back to herself.

Dwayne would keep his side of the bargain. The witch would not interfere.

He eyed the waves once more before he scooped Fay up with both arms and held her against his chest. Dwayne tilted Fay's head onto his shoulder as he gingerly ran a finger along the open gashes that marred his perfect features. The torn skin had not yet begun to properly heal.

Huh. Interesting.

A thick smear of his blood in her mouth would turn Fay's immune system on itself for a few days. It would not hurt her since there was nowhere near enough blood to trigger the change to from human to a half-vampire state. David had assured him that there was no possible way for Fay to join the ranks of the Undead due to being what she was. Witches and vampires just do not mix on any level, including biological. All a few drops of his blood would do was make her sick to her stomach for a few days. And a sick Fay was a distracted Fay.

The blood on his finger was smeared on her lips and gum and his job was done.

 _Stay…_

"Yeah I hear you."

… _away…_

With Fay in his arms Dwayne took to the air and flew north toward Fay's place. He left David to lure the two unsuspecting friends to their demise and hoped that he would just kill them instead. It was a headache that he knew was bound to happen but did not want to deal with. He had an unconscious witch to figure out.

It was Paul who finally noticed that Fay and Dwayne were no longer around.

"Hey David. Where'd Fay go?" He had not realized it but during the time the three of them had wandered off down the beach they had ended up away from all forms of life.

"She and Dwayne had a few things to work out. Don't worry about it. You'll see them soon."

David's voice calming to the point of hypnotic.

"Yeah Paul. You got to relax man." Marko said with a tired smile. He stood beside David completely seduced and under his spell. David smirked. It was just too easy. All he had to do was lull them into a false sense of security and then mesmerize them. Like leading sheep to the slaughter.

"Listen to your friend Paul. Everything is perfect. Trust me."

David's voice affected the two friends better than any calm inducing substance ever could.

Yeah everything was perfect. There was no need to worry. Paul trusted David completely. Everything was as it should be.

"Trust me."

Those were the last words that crossed Paul's mind before he and Marko blacked out. They would not remember the cold inhuman chuckle nor the pain that followed. When they awoke things were going to be a whole lot different. Not just for them but for everyone.

"Trust me."


	10. Chapter Eight

"Marko…"

 _It's time to wake up_

"Marko…"

 _Rise and shine_

"…wake up. For God's sake man, wake the fuck up!"

It was Paul's voice that finally made its way through the heavy fog that surrounded Marko's brain and brought him to his senses. The weightless black that had him swaddled in a comfortable state of numbness pulled back and Marko instantly regretted being alive. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think. Everything hurt.

Oh god why?

A pitiful groan was all he could manage as Paul's dogged persistence forced his eyes open. Colours, there were weird colours, neon vivid and way too focused. Marko shut his eyes while Paul helped him to sit up. Both of them were dazed and utterly confused.

"Man, I feel like shit." Marko gagged as he rested his forehead on his bent knees and waited until the world stopped spinning.

"What did we get into last night?"

He promptly lost the battle with gravity before the words left his mouth. Instinctively he curled up into a tight ball to ride out the nauseous wave that swept over him.

"I don't know bro, I can't remember a fucking thing."

Paul gingerly shook his head. He felt as if he had been hit head on by a Mac truck and then wrung out like a wet rag. When he had groggily regained consciousness he could not figure out who he was or which way was up for at least ten minutes or more. It had been impossible for him to do little more than fight to breathe until the vertigo had finally passed.

"Paul," Marko mumbled into the patched arm of his jacket as a spastic shudder sized his spine.

"What." Paul growled as he gently massaged his temples. God, beating his head in with the pointed end of a pickaxe would be less painful than the migraine that was pounding out the baseline of _Ace of Spades_ behind his eyes.

"Where the hell are we?" Marko asked before he managed to roll over onto his back without choking on the acid bile that hung back in his throat. Was this how Jimi Hendrix felt before he bought the farm? Because if so, it freaking sucked.

"Huh?" Paul squinted at Marko. The clash of colourful images on his jacket were starting to meld into each other.

"Look."

Paul blinked hard and looked about owlishly. It took a few long moments before things started to sink in.

Huh.

"Are we dead?"

The words just spilling out of Marko without him realizing it. Paul snorted, which was not a smart move, and swore softly.

" _Ah_...god I hate hangovers. No, we're not dead. We wouldn't be feeling like this if we were. I think we're under ground...looks like some sort of cave...I think."

Paul carefully attempted to stand up. Before he was even half way up, his legs gave out and he collapsed.

"Ok, not good." Paul said as he just laid there next to his best friend. What was wrong with him? No hangover had ever done this before. What exactly did they do last night?

"Evening boys. I wasn't expecting you both to wake for a few more hours yet."

It was hard to pinpoint exactly where the voice had come from because it echoed off the rock walls. Paul lifted his head in an attempt to find the owner of the voice. He gave a start of surprise when he realized that a guy decked out all in black stood right at his feet and stared down at them with a bemused smirk on his pasty face. One that Paul had a sudden and inexplicable urge to remove by force.

"Who the hell are you?" Paul demanded as he forced himself to sit up. Marko's eyes were glued on the figure's too blue to be natural eyes but he did not move. He would let Paul handle this one.

"You don't remember? The party on the beach? Your spat with Dwayne? Oh come on, it's not that hard."

"Don't fucking play mind games with me right now. Just answer the goddamn question." Paul snarled. He did not give a single shit as to who this smirking bastard was. The guy was starting to annoy him and right now he had enough to deal with.

"Paul, maybe you shouldn't..." Marko struggled to lift his head. Something in him told him that this was not someone they wanted to piss off.

"It's alright Marko." Those eerie blue eyes fixed on him before the stranger gave a small smile. Marko blinked in confusion as the figure crouched down so that he was at eye-level with them.

"I'm David and we met last night. It seems that the party was a little too rough on you guys." David eyed the blackened eye that Dwayne had delivered. Paul raised a hand on the left side of his face and winced as the purple black bruise made itself known.

"Who did you say I got into a scrap with?" Paul asked. Vague images of the aforementioned party were starting to piece together in his mind.

"The same guy that tried to take your head off the last time." David said and watched as the realization finally began to dawn.

"That mother-fucking son-of-a-bitch!" Paul swore with a vengeance, one that caused him to hiss in severe pain as the pounding in his head spiked with his emotions. "So how the fuck did we get here? Where the fuck are we? Why the fuck do we feel like we got hit by a fucking train?"

David arched a pale eyebrow as Paul continued to swear a blue streak with venom laced in every other word.

"I brought you here. I couldn't leave you two lying dead to the world in the middle of nowhere, now could I?" David rose to his feet. He stepped over Paul's legs and walked past Marko, who shrank back. He wanted to keep as much distance between himself and this David dude as possible.

"Yeah, but that only answers one fucking question." Paul growled, blinking slowly as the throbbing in his brain matter began to subside a bit.

"Impatient are we? You need to relax Paul. You are only going to cause yourself more pain." David said and completely ignored the crude hand gesture that Paul sent his way.

"And where is here exactly?" Marko spoke up and drew David's attention away from Paul for the time being.

"My home." David replied.

"You live here? I...seriously? You actually live in this cave thing?"

"Seriously."

David glanced around the cave. There wasn't much to see, just a few odds and ends that he had managed to install during his stay. He was not big on the décor so the cave was pretty spartan with one exception. A huge black and white poster of Jim Morrison hung in a place of honour on the back wall. If there was one thing that David truly appreciated, it was the music that Morrison had created. The man was a rock legend, immortalized in music, dead by twenty-seven. In a way, David seemed to look up to him. Well, it was kind of difficult not to, seeing how the poster was at least twelve feet tall.

"And just when you think you've seen everything. Are you believing this? Cause right now I don't know what to believe." Paul said to Marko as he tried once more to get to his feet. This time he succeeded, only barely.

"Look, nice cave and all. Just tell us why my friend and I are so shit-faced will you?" He said as he straightened and tried very hard to get a firm grasp on his simmering temper as he did so. His gut instinct was telling him that this David character had something to do with why they felt like death warmed over.

David looked Paul over slowly, saying nothing while he contemplated on how he was going to bring about the big reveal. As the minutes passed, Paul's temper began to flare. David's deliberate silence really started to grate on his self-control. For some reason all he wanted to do was deck the guy in the face a few times before crawling under a rock to die.

"You want to know?"

"Yeah, we kinda do. That's why I'm asking."

"Fine, you want to know so here it is. You are dying."

David stood back on his heels and waited.

"What?" Marko whispered. Not quiet believing his ears but at the same time knowing what David just said was the truth. He looked up at Paul, eyes full of fear and uncertainty, as Paul blanched at the news. The cave was quiet, the distant sound of the ocean surf crashing against a solid wall of rock was the only thing that could be heard.

"Are you trying to be funny or something?" Paul said quietly, fixing David a glare that would have made Vincent Price proud. His right hand curled into an iron fist as he fought the urge to physically hurt the person in front of him.

In a situation like this he knew better than to lose his cool. It was obvious that they were dealing with some sort of sick psychopath and blowing his stack was not going to help them. But for the life of him, Paul could not shake the foreign feeling of seething rage that was grew in his core and started to spread through him. Marko scrambled up to his feet and stood behind Paul while David just stood there as calm as anything.

"Am I laughing?" David asked as he arched an eyebrow, deliberately taunting Paul.

That was the last straw.

Something fragile inside Paul snapped and he flew at David with his arm swinging. The blow never connected.

"Fuckin' Christ!" Paul gaped in mid-stride as his fist met nothing but air. Marko let out a fearful yelp as David turned and grinned, jagged teeth gleaming lethally in the dim firelight of the cave. The sight of David's vampiric face had done exactly what he had expected and the two friends stood petrified as they stared at him dumbfounded.

"Trust me, he has nothing to do with it." David chuckled darkly as his grin morphed into a full-blown demonic sneer that sent the two running for their lives.

"Fu-AH!" Paul screamed as he turned to bolt. David was suddenly there in front of him, blocking his way completely.

"Are we satisfied yet?" David stalked forward dangerously in such a way that Paul back-pedalled as fast as he could. He could not see where he was going before he tripped over a fallen wooden beam. All he saw was teeth.

"Well?" David asked as he grabbed Paul by the collar of his jacket and hauled him to his feet single-handedly.

"What the fuck do you want man!" Paul gasped as David brought his face a mere inch away from Paul's. Paul could not look away from those hellish demon-like eyes. He could see his own terrified face reflection in them.

"What I want is for you to..." David started but before he could finish Marko was behind him with a broken wooden spar that he had found. He brought it down on David's head as hard as he could.

"Argh!" David snarled as his hold on Paul broke. He turned to face Marko with a growl that everyone felt. Even though David's vicious snarl scared him senseless Marko refused to back down. Wielding the piece of wood like a sword, Marko kept David at bay while Paul picked himself up and got the hell out of David's reach.

"Marko put that down." David said in a levelled voice as he gracefully dodged a solid jab to his chest. Marko's only response was to swing the wooden spar like a bat so that David was forced to take a step back.

"You're a fucking vampire!" Marko cried as David whirled under his line of defence and grabbed hold of the spar. He wrenched it out of Marko's grasp as he pulled in him close.

"And so are you." David hissed.

Marko scrambled backward shaking his head in denial.

"No way! No fucking way man!"

Marko found himself backed up against the cave wall with nowhere else to go. David had him cornered. He looked about him wildly, trying to find something, anything, he could use as a weapon. There was nothing.

"Will you just calm down for a minute so I can explain everything?" David face morphed back to his human self. However that just freaked Marko out even more which was the exact opposite of what David had expected.

"Like hell you will, you fucking nutcase!" Paul let loose a roar he did not know he had as he ran to Marko's aid. The rage had come back in full force and it drove him forward. Paul wanted blood. He did not care about what he had to do to get it.

"Not so fast little man!"

An all-too familiar snarl cut through the chaos as none other than Dwayne, in his full terrifying vampire form, wrenched Paul around with nothing but a hairsbreadth of space between them. Paul got the full blast of Dwayne's roar as the vampire prepared to do some permanent bodily harm but Paul was not going to go down without a fight. Not this time.

Unbeknown to Paul his face now mirrored the snarling visage in front of him, eyes aflame and fangs elongated into wicked points. He snarled right back without an ounce of fear as the wave of rage he had been riding finally peaked. There was no going back now.

" **DWAYNE!** **STOP!"** David roared in sheer outrage. What the hell?! How dare he! What was Dwayne even doing there?

There was no time to argue. If David did not intervene immediately Dwayne would rip Paul to pieces and that was something that David was not about to let happen. Blue gave way to gold as David was forced to look away from Marko just in time to see the two infuriated vampires ram each other's fists in the others face.

Marko did not hesitate. One look at Paul and that was all he needed. Fight or flight, Marko chose flight. He used David's momentary distraction to make his move. With a force born from sheer desperation, Marko lashed out with his foot and nailed David a blow to the groin with enough power behind it to land a forty-yard touchdown. David blanched as his knees buckled, completely engrossed in the pain. He had not seen that one coming.

What was that saying about best laid plans going awry? Yeah, fuck that shit.

'Run man! Just run!" Paul shouted as he brought his knee up and rammed it into Dwayne's stomach. "Get out of here!"

Paul motioned Marko to head for the exit as he grabbed a handful of Dwayne's long black hair and threw him down. Marko fled up a ramp made of rubble and rock without stopping to think. He booked it out of the cave, taking the rickety wooden stairs two at a time up to the top of cliff face.

Paul knew that there would be no such quick escape for him and as Dwayne swiped his legs from under him, he accepted the fact that at least he had bought Marko some time. But now it was all about the blood.


	11. Chapter Nine

It was close to ten when the bedroom phone began to ring.

"Hey Marko! Can you get that?" Fay yelled out from the upstairs bathroom as she quickly wrapped a towel around her head, twisting it into a makeshift turban. Figaro was perched calmly on the toilet seat lid content to lick the dampness off of his delicate paws while Fay bustle about in the small space.

A sea of hair care products and mounds of make up covered every available inch of surface space on the bathroom counter. There was enough Aqua Net and eyeshadow in that one bathroom to kit out a Twisted Sister dressing room while concealer, brushes, and other tools of the beauty trade spilled out of overflowing baskets and cabinets mounted on the pale pink and white tiled walls.

The phone in Fay's bedroom went quiet only to come back to life a minute later. This time the deep warbling ring sounded annoyed and was accompanied by the kitchen phone that decided to chime in on the second round strangely enough.

"Marko? Phone?"

Fay could not just drop everything to dash across the hallway until the leave-in conditioning had set. She seriously needed to upgrade to a cordless phone.

"Marko!"

What good was having a couch-surfing half-vampire roommate if he was too afraid to answer the phone?

It had been four days since a posse of Fay's felines had tracked Marko down to an abandoned hardware store not too far from where the dance studio Fay worked at was located. Fay had been in rough shape herself when she hauled her bones into her little Ford Fiesta but that was nothing compared to the utter wreck that Marko had become. Strung-out, starving and terrified of his own shadow it had taken Fay hours to coax him from his hiding spot and prove over and over that she was not afraid, a threat, or in any danger from him.

Yes, she knew what happened to him. No, she was not surprised that he was a vampire. No, she did not think he was losing his mind. Was she in league with David? No. Why wasn't she afraid? The game of twenty questions never seemed to end. By the end it all boiled down to two things. He was not a vampire but a half-vampire, hence the shakes and aches, and she was in fact a witch. Hence all the cats.

The battalion of ever vigilant tabbies that had shown up in her backyard once she had him squared away in her guest bedroom was proof of that. With daily reassurances that she was not the average girl-next-door she had finally managed to get it into his head that her house was in fact the safest place in Santa Carla for someone in Marko's predicament to lie low in. Yet that did nothing to ease the constant fear that David was probably out searching the streets for him.

They both knew that it was only a matter of time before David came knocking on Fay's door and there was not much either of them could do to stop it. However if David believed that he was just going to waltz into her house and pull rank he was in for one _very_ unpleasant reality check.

"Uh, Fay? It's for you." Marko said softly as he suddenly materialized outside of the bathroom doorway, looking uncomfortable as he kept his eyes on the floor.

"Did you ask who it is? Here, hold these."

Fay hurried out of the bathroom and shoved a bunch of toiletries into Marko's arms before she hurried into her bedroom. Marko glanced down at the stuff and quickly looked for a place to put it. There were just some things that a guy didn't need to know about the person who was keeping him from falling off the pulse wagon by means of smoothies made from pigs blood.

Marko tiptoed into Fay's room, deposited her stuff onto her bed, and quickly exited. He paused on the other side of the closed door and listened in for a moment. It was difficult not to eaves drop when his hearing had become sharp enough to pick up on what was being said on late night television in the house across the street.

"Hello?"

"FAY! OH MY GOODNESS GIRL! YOU ARE HARDER TO GET A HOLD OF THAN A VIRGIN DAIQUIRI DURING MARDI GRAS!"

"Wha-, Nunze?"

"YES! IT'S ME! YOU'RE SISTER FROM A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT MISTER! OH FAY! FINALLY! TELL ME, WHO WAS THAT? HE SOUNDED YOUNG! HAVE YOURSELF A BARELY LEGAL BOY TOY? ABOUT TIME GIRL! WELCOME TO THE CLUB!"

"Nunze, too loud! God, I can't even hear myself think."

"WHO NEEDS TO...fine. Who needs to think when you're busy getting some? Oh Girl, oh, you had better tell me everything! Every. Little. Detail. I need to imagine this. Ohhh...wait! Was that the tall dark smokin' piece of mystery meat that I've been seeing in your future? Oh please tell me it was. Please please please please! Those abs! That smoulder! How dangerously delicious!"

"Ugh stop!"

"Ohhh tish. Don't got getting all squeamish on me now honey. It's not like this is your first time on the carousel. We both know what to do when the dark horse comes around."

"Nunzia. Put Theo on the phone. I know she's there with you."

"You always want to talk to her. I am the one with The Gift sweetheart. Why won't you talk to me? I can be totally serious when I have to. Only not now because you have a baby Adonis all to yourself, in your bedroom, you sex kitten you. Rrrrawr! Oh! And don't worry. It's not necrophilia if you bone a deadite. They may not have a pulse but since they are technically "undead" it's all legal in the state of California. Fun!"

"Nunzia your hair's looking a little flat from behind, might want to go fix that. No, you're going to need a bigger mirror...no you won't miss anything...I promise...Hey Fay."

Marko arched an eyebrow when a third voice filled the room. This voice was gruff and no-nonsense, a woman with an edge and a growl. Polar opposite to the over exaggerated campy squeal that set his teeth on edge. Fay was on the phone but it sounded like there were two other women standing right there in her bedroom.

"Hey Theo. Thanks for calling me back."

"No problem."

"What did Big Anthony say? What did he find out?"

"He said you were asking to get yourself killed is what he said Fay. What do you think you're getting at? A vampire in your house?"

"Theo he's not a vampire, not yet."

"Excuse me, "half-vampire" then. He is destined for the grave no matter what you say."

"Thanks for that Theo. Gotta love your faith in me."

"Oh Fay come off it. It's not you I'm worried about. You have time bomb waiting to go off and you're acting like it's no big deal!'

"It isn't Theo. Not yet. I still have time."

"Oh yeah? It's been four days girl. I'm surprised your stray has made it this long."

"He's hanging on. Thanks for that smoothie recipe by the way. It works."

"Yeah but it's not going to solve anything. Not permanently. That stuff is designed for wolves Fay, not bloodsuckers. Cujo is going to start wanting something more and when you can't give it to him he'll turn on you."

"Well then I'm going to have to make sure I can end this before we get to that point. Which brings me to Anthony. What did he say?"

"I can't believe I'm going along with this. I swear if this gets back to the Aunts that we've been helping you we are all going to be in a shitload of trouble. But whatever. Anth says you were right about that Hail Mary play. Word from the Underground is that if the lead vampire, the head honcho, is taken out before your boy makes a kill he'll go back to being human again. Only thing is the top dog is usually very hard to dust. This David guy you mentioned, he doesn't sound like a clown. He's smart. He'll expect something."

"For all he knows I've bailed and left town now the there's three of them on the prowl."

"And when he finds out you haven't?"

"I got that covered."

There was a lull in the conversation before the unknown speaker, Theo, spoke up again.

"Jesus Fay, you sure about this? This could cause some major blowback on you."

"I have to Theo."

"No, hell no, you do not. You don't owe that kid anything. You know the rules!"

"Theo he asked for my help. What am I supposed to do? Throw him out and let David turn him? He's a friend, a mostly human friend, and that makes me responsible."

"Okay, he's human. For now. What happens when he's not?"

"It's not going come to that."

"Oh yeah? Famous last words. And if it does?"

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. If I come to it."

"Girl you are going to have to burn it down and scatter the ashes to the winds. You know that, right?"

"Yes Theo, I am fully aware of what happens. Thanks."

"Hey, I'm just being the realist here. Nunzia wants to come down and help but you know her. She'll only make matters worse. Heart is in the right place with that woman but the brain, not so much."

"I appreciate it but you guys have done enough. If things go south I don't want this to come back to bite any of you in the ass."

"Don't worry about us. We have our alibis set. We'll keep covering for you with the Family but you gotta end this now Fay. I'm not kidding around. This stops. It has to."

"I know Theo. And it will. I just need the chance and a clear shot."

"I hope you get it because the clock is running down. And make sure you never set foot out of your place without you know what."

"I don't and I won't. Listen Theo, I gotta go. Tell Anthony I said thanks and let Nunzia know that I'll call her tomorrow. With the details. All of them. Not that there are any."

"Make something up. You know she envies you. An entire house to yourself and no family around. Must be nice."

"It's peachy all right. I'll talk to you later."

"Alright Fay. Don't hesitate. If it doesn't work out get out of there and come straight up to San Fran as fast as you can. I'll have Anthony and the boys meet you half-way."

"Thanks Theo. I appreciate it."

"No problem. Go teach that son of a bitch a lesson."

"Will do. Bye Theo."

"Ciao babe. Don't die."

The click of the receiver was the signal. Marko headed for the guest bedroom that Fay had given him to stay in. The curtains were raised and the window was opened. During the day everything remained shut and darkened but at night Fay kept them open. She told him that if he did not want to step out of the house that was his choice, but there was no way that she was going to keep the windows shut if there was a decent breeze outside.

Marko sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. Things were starting to slip and even though Fay had done a thorough job explaining everything there was to know about vampires and stuff, he could not bring himself to face her.

"Hey, you ok?" Fay stuck her head into the room.

"Yeah, I'm fine." He replied, giving her a forced smile that she did not buy for a second. With a roll of her eyes she walked into the room, robed and towelled, before she sat down on the bed beside him completely unafraid.

"No you're not. We both know it. So spill. What's up?" She said as she pulled a brush out of a huge pocket and placed it on her lap. She kept one ear cocked while she unwound the towel turban and started to brush out her permed curls, which was easier said than done.

"It's getting harder now. I...I don't know what it is. Every night I feel drawn to something, something out there, but I don't want to know what it is. I just have to find it but I'm afraid of what it is. And then...there's the _other_ thing."

He leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees, eyes downcast like they usually were of late. Fay pursed her lips as she continued to work out a tangle. There was no denying it. Marko was a half-vampire and it was really starting to show. She had caught him attempting to take a bite out of one of her cats the day before but it did him more harm then good. Her feline fur babies could take care of themselves from all predators, including vampires.

"It just gets harder every day. I don't know how long I can fight this..." He trailed off, his tongue failing him. Fay put the brush down with a sigh.

"I know. Oh I know."

She wrapped an arm around his shoulders and cradled him, much like a mother would for a child. It was the only comfort that she could give him. It was not enough. Not by half. But at least it was something.

"It's David." She said softly as she tucked a curl hair behind his ear. "That thing that you are feeling drawn to is David. He's trying to coax you out...bait you into revealing yourself."

Her eyes strayed to the open window and out into the night. They were out there, somewhere, searching. David would not stop until he found what he was looking for. Now with Paul under his influence he would be even harder to deal with. She hoped that she had at least one more night to get everything ready.

"What's that?" Marko suddenly stiffened and pulled away.

"What's what?" Fay asked. She did not hear anything out of the ordinary.

"They're coming."

Vampire hearing was exceptionally acute.

Well so much for that.

"Well then, looks like I am going to have to change." Fay was all business as she rose to her feet. With a flick of her wrist the bedroom window slammed shut and locked itself as the curtains flew over it.

"I want you to stay here. No matter what you hear, or what you see, you stay put. Understand?"

Marko tried to follow her but Fay stopped him.

"Stay. Put. I mean it."

Fay froze him with a look that brooked no argument before the door slammed shut and locked itself just like the window had.

Marko cursed as the distinct growl of motorcycles tainted the balmy atmosphere of the suburban neighbourhood. He went to the window and carefully peeked through the curtains to see David, Dwayne, and Paul pull up in front of the house.

"Oh Paul."

Marko pulled back when David looked up and looked right at him. A knowing smirk tugged at the corner of his mouth.

While Marko was squared away in her makeshift sanctuary, Fay was on the warpath. The air was electric with anxious anticipation as she marched into her bedroom and came out a moment later stuffing something narrow up the sleeve of her pink bathrobe. Screw changing. There was no time. With Figaro hot on her heels Fay stormed straight to the front door and threw it open just as David reached for the doorknob. With a wordless feline snarl Fay lashed out at David. She nailed a blow to his face before he even saw her coming.

"BASTARDO!" She shrieked as she threw out her hand. She did not touch him as he was flung eight feet from the porch by an invisible force. He hit the ground and rolled back onto his feet as the front door slammed shut behind Fay.

"What the hell!" He growled as he took his hand away from his face. The leather glove he wore was covered in blood. Fay had not bitch-slapped him upside the head. She had clawed him, clawed him hard enough to leave those tell-tale bleeding furrows across his face. Only these ones ran deep enough to expose bone.

"Either of you move and I swear I will launch you into outer orbit."

Fay hissed viciously as she raised her hand toward Dwayne and Paul before they could intercede. The two exchanged a look, not knowing whether they should risk it or not. David motioned for them to back down as he stepped forward to face the furious Fay.

"Why all the fuss Fay?" David asked as he ignored the token of her affection on his face. He stared her down but neither the vampire nor the witch budged an inch.

"Why the fuss? Why you sneering low-life son-of-a-man whore! I THINK YOU KNOW WHY ALL THE FUSS GODDAMIT!" She belted as she marched down those porch steps like category five hurricane ready to unleash Armageddon. She stopped about a foot away from David to look straight at him as they stood toe-to-toe. The calm before the fury.

"Why don't you speak a little louder Fay? The neighbours are enjoying this."

David hissed between his teeth. His face was a pale mask of neutral calm, his composure never wavered.

"Maybe I will speak a little louder so that the entire world can know just how much of a dick you are David!" She shot right back. Her hand twitched as she fought the urge to deliver a backhand that would have made his head spin.

"Hey Fay it's ok girl. Just calm down for a minute." Paul spoke up in a misguided attempt to ease the mounting tension only to have his efforts blow up in his face.

"Be quiet Paul! No it is _not_ ok and no I will _not_ calm down." Fay snarled at him, one finger pointed in his direction.

"Honestly Fay enough of the dramatics. I would have thought that a witch would have a more self-control. This is getting embarrassing." David said in order to draw her attention back to him.

Fay's eyes flashed a brilliant shade of utter loathing.

"Don't you talk to me about self-control. Is there even a demon under that pasty white shell of yours or is this the only facial expression you can manage?" Fay growled. She lowered her voice before she woke any of the neighbours.

A witch having it out with a gang of vampires in the middle of the American dream was not something she wanted advertised.

"Was that an insult because it was a little weak."

"Bite me, as if you could. What do you want."

She bit back what she really wanted to say at that moment. David had a way of getting under her skin but in order to win this round having a full-on spas attack in the middle of the street was not the best tactic to employ.

Fay had to fight fire with a flamethrower.

"You know what I want Fay. I've come to claim what's mine."

David eyes strayed up to the second floor window.

"No, I won't allow it. You can't have him."

Fay simply and utterly refused, right then and there, no questions ask. It was out of the question.

"You know the rules Fay. You cannot interfere. This doesn't concern you." David stated, knowing full well that what he said was the truth.

A witch could not interfere with a vampire when it came to siring fledglings. It was a rule that irked Fay to no end but she was ready for him.

"Actually it does. As long as he seeks sanctuary under my protection and in my house you can't do a damn thing about it. But I guess you already knew that. And that's why you brought your little posse with you. What? Were you going to have Dwayne and Paul fight me while you dragged that boy out of the house? Not bloody likely."

She crossed her arms over her chest with purpose as she put her foot down. She may have accidentally invited every vampire in the California state to come barging into her house but that did not mean she was helpless. She has her own special way with dealing with unwanted guests.

While Fay and David verbally sparred Dwayne nudged Paul and motioned at the porch with a slight nod of his head. There were cats everywhere. Along the railing, on the steps, across the entire porch. They had appeared without warning and watched the vampires with those dangerous search light eyes. As if they knew what they were up to. There would be no sneaking around the back for those two.

Time to go to Plan B.

"He's a half-vampire Fay. What are you going to do with him? There's no turning him back unless you kill me and that is not likely to happen any time soon. What were you planning to do with him? Hmm? Wait until he loses it completely and attacks you so you'll be forced to kill him? The whole Mother Teresa act is touching Fay, but it has to stop." David acted as if he tried to make the stubborn witch see reason. He was really just buying Dwayne time.

"You think that I haven't thought about that? Like you said, the only way to turn him back is to kill you. What makes you think I won't?" Fay brought down her raging eruption to a dangerous simmer just below the surface of her self-control. She stared at David without breaking eye contact and mirrored his cocky smile. Her teeth were just as sharp as his. A cloud of uncertainty dulled those devilish blue eyes of his. In that moment he realized the honest truth.

She was not bluffing.


	12. Chapter Ten

Greetings Sportsfans!

We did it! We made it to the end of Part One of "People Are Strange". Yay! This chapter goes a little sideways from the original draft but I hope you enjoy the changes and all the new tid-bits. Speaking of which there are now links to the musical playlists for this story and "Little Fighter" in my bio description. It's always good to have some seriously rad tunage to enjoy while reading through fic chapters. Shout out to all those reading this story and the ones leaving reviews. Thank you! Call is kismet but they came at the perfect time.

The song for this chapter is **"Every Rose has its Thorn"** by _Poison_ in honour of Marko. Because he is a most excellent character. (air guitar rift)

"People" is going to be quiet for the next little while as I focus on rolling out the rest of the "Little Fighter" chapters. Don't worry! The next chapter for this story is one that no one has ever seen before. Heck I haven't even written it down fully but it does explain what was going on with Fay and a certain dark rider during the nine months that she was MIA from Santa Carla. If I keep this up I'm going to have to bump up the rating for this story. (waggles eyebrows)

Or I could lump all of the M rated deleted scenes into a little side scrapbook for folks to enjoy and keep this where it is. What do you think?

* * *

Just like that the tables had turned. Fay wanted David dead.

"C'mon man. Get him out of there before all hell breaks loose." Paul urged Dwayne under his breath as David and Fay began to size each other up.

"I'm trying but the house is warded. Damn it!"

Dwayne hissed as he re-doubled his concentrated efforts. If he could just get a fix on Marko he could coax him out from behind the protection of Fay's walls. Do that and they could call it a night. The skill of mind bending was something he was damn good at, David knew this first hand, but Fay had gone and changed the locks. Whatever magical wards she had managed to cast in the last few days blocked his abilities. There had to be a backdoor route somewhere. He just needed the time to find it.

But time was a precious commodity that they were quickly running out of.

"You wouldn't dare."

David readjust his footing to counter-act Fay's calculated prowl before he switched to the offence. The two began the slow dance of circling one another.

"Oh please. David, I could have your head on my wall before dawn if I wanted to."

"Go ahead and try because I am not leaving here without him. If that means having to end you, well, what's one less witch in the world?"

Paul watched the two with a sick sort of fascination. This was not the feisty laughing woman he had come to know. This was a stranger. A dangerous one. She only had eyes for David and Paul knew that this was going to end in blood.

"David, you don't seriously mean that. I mean...c'mon, you're joking, right?"

"What do you think?"

The moment the words left David's mouth Fay made her move. Paul stumbled backward as David leapt sideways to avoid Fay's sudden lunge.

"Shit!"

Fay lunged and retreated as David maneuvered himself just beyond her reach. He had to work hard to draw her away from her front porch with every back-step he took. If he had wanted the witch dead, he would have made his move by now. Instead the two of them kept up their deadly dance; twisting and sidestepping in rapid succession. It was a blur of black and pink to the naked human eye.

"Go left."

Dwayne motioned Paul to keep well out of reach as he abandoned his task for the moment. The kid wasn't going anywhere. He knew from experience just how dangerous David could be in a fight but he was not fool enough to jump into the middle of one. That would be beyond stupid. The best he could do now was damage control.

Ugh. What is that?

Something appeared in Fay's hand as she ducked under David's claws. Whatever it was the vampires were instinctively repulsed by it.

A crucifix?

But it was the wrong shape.

When Fay slashed at David's throat, Paul cringed. Oddly enough so did Dwayne. The strike had almost connected. David managed to back-pedal fast enough to avoid being hit but he let loose a snarl of alarm.

The panic in his tone was genuine.

The skin along the back of Dwayne's neck prickled in warning as Fay switched tactics and went for David with the deadly determination of a matador with a sword. And she had a sword. A sword? That wasn't a sword. A knife? No. A wooden stake? That looked like a sword?

What was going on?

Dwayne grimaced as his eyes started to burn. He could not look directly at the object that Fay wielded with such authority without feeling sick. Paul was in similar position, only he had gone an off-shade of grey as a result.

This was getting out of hand and they were on the wrong side of Fay's attention. David did not have a clue about what he had put them up against and if Dwayne did not think of something fast they would pay the ultimate price for David's inflated ego. That was not going to happen.

 _HELP!_

And there was the call.

On cue Dwayne sidestepped David and gave him a solid shove to propel him out of the way as Paul lunged at the woman in pink from behind and grabbed her upheld wrist. It was a stupid move on his part as he attempted to wrestle her for the possession of the mysterious object.

For a woman that petite, she was stronger than he would have guessed.

"NO PAUL! STOP!"

Marko bolted out of the house in a panic. The cats on the porch scattered except for one. Fat Cat refused to be moved. His black and white bulk tripped up Marko and sent him sprawling on the cement walkway. Someone would end up dead because of him and when Marko saw Paul grab hold Fay he knew that he had to do something.

"Let her go Paul!"

Fay hissed viciously as she twisted and writhed out of the vampire's grip. The repulsive object she wielded shot upward and glanced off Paul's head just above his left eye. A god-awful agonizing scream accompanied the foul stench of seared flesh and burnt hair as he fell back. Blinded, Paul instinctively brought both hands up as smoke hiss between his fingers.

It hurt like hell. Worse than hell. Worse than dying.

"Holy oil!"

David roared in outrage as he looked to Paul's cauterized face and then at the object that had begun to gleam painfully in Fay's right hand.

"You witch bitch!"

"You are a moron David! Do you really think holy oil can do this?"

Fay panted hard between her snarling as she whipped her arm up and held the long yet narrow wooden spoon aloft like it was a flaming sword of justice. To any member of the undead, it was. The gleam that surrounded the wooden object pulsed dangerously bright.

Instinctively Dwayne and David back the hell up while Paul staggered blindly, driven by the same instinctive need to get as far away from the witch as possible.

"I _warned_ you David! You didn't listen then. But you will now."

Fay's eyes blazed as she stood firm before her would-be attackers. The spoon, a plain old cooking utensil, radiated power in her hand. To a vampire the painfully bright pulsating light was impossible to look at.

" _Big Spoon_ David. The tool of my grandmother's grandmothers. A _santa reliquia_ handed down from mother to daughter. Sanctified by popes you've never even heard of. This thing has annihilated creatures of darkness far more powerful than you will ever be. And now I have a perfectly legitimate reason to use it, so tell me David. Who dies first? It's your call."

Dwayne speared David with a look that would have slaughtered if it could.

 _THAT'S A FREAKING HOLY RELIC! WHAT THE HELL DAVID! ARE YOU INSANE? NO MARK IS WORTH THIS!_

Dwayne's voice snarled at full volume through the mental connection the three vampires now shared. Paul whimpered before he doubled over from the pain in his head. David was completely blindsided. He had no idea what he had led them into. The reality of just how much he had messed up was right there in front of him and he was at a loss for words.

"Those boys, their blood is on _your_ head. I hope you choke on it you leech!"

"Stop Fay. No one dies tonight."

It was Marko's scared voice that did what David, Dwayne, and Paul could not. Fay paused, her chest heaving from the effort it took to power the spoon. She regarded Marko with utter disbelief.

"Why are you defending him? Look at what he did to you! What he did to Paul! This is the only way to reverse what's happened."

"Will it save Paul? Will killing David solve anything?"

"It's too late for Paul Marko. I'm sorry. But it's not for you. I can still fix this. I have to."

The wooden spoon shook she adjusted her grip on the worn handle. The amount of energy that it took to power the relic had begun to take its toll. It was now or never.

Marko was scared. Beyond that really. But Paul was in pain. Pain that Fay had caused. She was going to kill him for something he did have any control over. That was a line that Marko would not cross. Not even to save himself.

"My place is with Paul. Where he goes I go. If it's too late for him...then...same goes for me. I won't leave him to do this alone."

Paul could not believe his ears. He could not see Marko but he heard him. Loud and clear.

"Do you have an idea what you are saying? What that actually means? You lose yourself Marko. Bit by bit you will lose everything that makes you who you are. Your humanity? Your family? Your memories? Gone. Forgotten. Lost to time. All that will be left is the outer shell of what you once were and the eternal parasite you will become. An eternity of darkness, death, and loneliness is what you get. Is that what you want? Don't kid yourself Marko, vampires die all the time. Nothing lasts forever. Not even your friend."

"No." Marko shook his head. "Fay..."

"Get inside. I don't have time for this." Fay inhaled sharply as she fought to steady herself. "You don't know what you want and you are too young to make that call. Get inside and lock the door. Don't listen and don't look."

The pent-up energy that was building in the spoon strained for release. The longer she held it the harder it shook. She levelled the spoon at David. Maybe it was her maternal instinct working overtime but whatever it was Fay felt responsible for Marko. He was just a kid. Like hell was she just going to stand by and let that corpse faced demon ruin his life.

"This ends tonight. And good riddance you fiend."

Without any hesitation Marko inhaled sharply before he made what could be the worst decision of his life. His body became a solid barrier between the lead vampire and the witch.

"I'm sorry Fay."

Fay gaped at him.

"No. Don't do this to me. Marko, step aside. Now. Please. I can't keep this up. He has to die so you can live. Do you understand that?"

"Don't be mad Fay."

He reached for the spoon.

"MAFANKULO! CAZZO MADRE DI DIO! TI AMMAZZO DAVID!"

Fay shrieked at a harpy's pitch as she whipped the spoon away before Marko could make contact. Had he touched it, the energy surge would have destroyed him where he stood. The spoon buzzed through the air before it struck the side of David's motorcycle. A flash of blinding white light erupted from the impact as the black and chrome Triumph ceased to exist. No flames, no ashes, no wreckage. There one moment and gone in an instant. Just like that.

All that remained was the plain wooden spoon on the cracked asphalt of Fay's driveway.

Marko exhaled a shaky breath while the fury that had kept Fay going evaporated. She crumpled slightly into her robe.

She failed him. David had won.

"Che palle. You poor lost boy."

Fay's forehead came to rest against the colourful patchwork on Marko's shoulder as tears silently tracked down her cheeks and onto his jacket.

"Don't cry Fay. It'll be all right."

Fay sniffed hard as she swiped her fingers under her eyes.

"No it won't Marko. It can't."

"You don't know that."

"Nothing good ever comes from a pair of fangs."

"And not claws?"

He had seen the marks on David's face. Those were not made from acrylic press-ons.

Fay shook her head.

"Go. Paul needs you. He's going to be in a bad way for a while but he'll survive. I didn't hit him that hard."

"Fay..."

Her arms wrapped tightly around Marko and squeezed. Everything she wanted to say, to convey, was in that simple action. She did not trust herself to speak. He had made his decision. It was going to be a burden that he alone would have to carry from now on.

"Go. Just be careful. Take care of each other."

"It's what we always do."

It was Marko who broke the hold and went to Paul's aid. He refused to even look in David's direction as he grabbed Paul by the arm and hauled him upright.

"You're such an idiot man."

Paul grimaced as Marko slung his arm over his shoulder and steered him toward his bike. Paul was in no condition to ride solo. Blinded and sporting charred third degree burns across his scalp, he was going to be out of commission for a while. Thankfully vampires had that fun little trick when it came to healing faster than the average bear.

"Shut up Paul."

Marko took care not to jostle his best friend too much as he got him settled on the back of the bike and mounted up in front.

"Welcome to the fold little bro." Paul slapped Marko on the shoulder. Marko's smile was weak as he kicked the engine to life.

"You good?"

"Yeah."

Paul held onto Marko and hooked his heels behind the foot rests as Marko backed the bike onto the street. One last glance was given to the woman who had put everything on the line for him before he opened the throttle. The pair jetted down the quiet suburban street without so much as a backward wave.

No one moved until the roar of Paul's motorcycle became a thing of the past.

"I'll meet you at the cave." David murmured quietly to Dwayne as he took his leave. He had a gut feeling that what went down tonight would not end here. He may have won the battle, but the war was far from over. He just shook his head as the corner of his mouth curled upward. He gave Fay a simple nod before he took to the sky with a loud rush of air.

Fay watched him soar up into the dark cloud coverage and vanish from view. She muttered something in dialect under her breath and to the untrained ear it sounded like a curse.

 _"Pagherai per questo nel sangue."_

Dwayne ran a hand through his hair as he made the cagey decision to break the silence.

"Look, Fay."

Fay stiffen and turned slowly around to face him. It took a lot of nerve for Dwayne to stand his ground. To say that Fay was pissed was a grave understatement.

" _What_."

"You knew this would happen. It was only a matter of time before he turned. There was nothing you could do."

He told it like it was. Even if she refused to hear the truth in it.

"Go away."

She turned her back to him and headed for the porch stairs. The wooden spoon was waiting on the welcome mat courtesy of Figaro who had fetched it when no one was looking.

"Fay, don't be like this." Dwayne started after her.

" _Reeeeeeeerrrrr! Hisssss!_ "

Fat Cat planted his bulky form in the vampire's path. His fur was puffed out in an attempt to intimidate instead of resembling a well-packed meatloaf with socks. The black and white feline glared up at Dwayne with a look that clearly told him to "beat it".

Dwayne found his way blocked by an ever-growing barrier of angry felines, growling and hissing with long tails lashing. Houdini, the orange tabby with the notched ear, took a run at him and went for his shin.

"C'mon Fay!" Dwayne shook the tabby off his leg only to have it attach itself to the other.

"Leave Dwayne. You are not welcome here."

"No."

Dwayne grounded himself to the spot. Let the cats have at him. That was not going to stop him.

Fay's eye twitched. What did he want? Her to fly into another rage only at him this time? Threaten to dismember him with gardening shears? Give him a tan? What good would that do? She was tired of these infuriating vampire games. Enough with the cat and mouse routine. She was done with it all. With them. Just done.

"Just leave me alone."

She bent to retrieve the spoon. A encouraging nudge from Figaro's striped silver head distracted her for a brief moment. Those gem green eyes of his spoke volumes as he fanned out his well-groomed whiskers encouragingly. It was not over until she called it and Fay still had a cat left in this dog fight. A mean one. That gave her an idea.

Cats always land on their feet and so did she. She was a Prima and that meant something. There was a chance that she could still salvage the situation. She just had to go about it in a different way.

Cats, no matter what size, play by their own rules.

Fay lengthened her spine before she turned to face Dwayne. The prim and proper striped tabby stood at her side with his thin tail arched in a bent question mark.

"Fine. Let's make a deal then. You keep them out of David's hooks. Keep them true to themselves. Do that for me. And if you do, I'll show you who I really am."

Fay tossed back her hair and straightened out of the slumped posture of defeat. If she could not beat them at their own game then it was time to change the game. Bloodsuckers were by no means dead from the neck down and Dwayne was no exception.

He arched an eyebrow at the offer. His interest with piqued to say the least. But he said nothing.

"I might even let you have a taste. If that's what you want. This I swear. By my blood, of my blood, for my blood."

Dwayne's dark eyes turned solid black when the scent of Fay's blood reached his nose. He inhaled sharply and swallowed hard as his incisors lengthened in response to the exotic copper tang that hinted at something more than human. Something familiar. Something predatory.

Four droplets of blood dripped from Fay's finger and landed with faint plats on the white painted porch planks.

"Do you agree?

Dwayne huffed and shifted his stance.

"If I don't?"

Fay gave him a pointed look.

"I know what you want. You can't have it unless I say so. So cut the crap and do what I asked. If you do I will make sure you won't regret it."

Fay smirked ever so slightly as she brought her hand up to her mouth and waited. Dwayne was zeroed in on the blood that ran down her finger, blood that she slowly lapped up with her tongue. She knew she had him when she heard that distinctive growl of frustration.

"Fine."

"Done."

She sealed the deal with a kiss.

Figaro jumped into her arms and settled himself on her shoulder as she stepped inside her house and slammed the front door. On cue Fay's multiple cats slunk off into the dark corners of the property with their tails low and ears pinned back. Fat Cat was the only one who remained. He carefully moved back to his spot on the porch and parked himself right on top of the blood splatter. There was no way he was going to let Dwayne get a peak at the goods. The cat gave an annoyed growl for good measure to prove that he meant business.

"Cats are such assholes."

Dwayne ignored the hiss the furry bowling ball with toes sent his way.

Fay leaned with her back pressed against the wooden door as she listened to Dwayne take off on his bike. It was in that moment that she stopped fighting the scratchy tickle in the back of her throat and let the tears come.

Dammit!

A soft _merwow_ made her smile as Figaro rubbed his rough nose against her chin.

 _No worries_

"What the hell am I doing?" She asked him as she slowly sunk down to the ground, sitting cross-legged in the tiled foyer. Figaro curled his tail around her wrist. She hugged him close and buried her face into his velveteen fur as a few more traitorous tears escaped out of the corners of her eyes.

"This is so messed up."

Figaro purred in agreement.

"At least I have you."

Despite his best efforts however a part of Fay felt like crawling under a rock and just staying there.

"So what now Fig?"

As if on cue the bedroom phone began to ring.

A few nights later once the sun finally dipped below the horizon, Dwayne and Paul hit the streets. Paul was still in rough shape but feeding off David as well as a few wayward street waifs had helped some. At least he could see out of both eyes again and his equilibrium had finally returned.

The two made their way uptown to Fay's place in record time. They nearly ran down an old man as they violated a number of traffic laws but they could not have cared less. Who was going to stop them?

Dwayne would have preferred to fly but Paul was still on shaky grounds and Dwayne needed him to help persuade Fay from doing something regrettable. Whoever said that "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned," clearly knew what he was talking about.

"I don't know about this man." Paul grumbled as they neared Fay's house. It had not been a pleasant experience the last time he was there. David said that it would take a few weeks before he healed completely. When it did he would have a permanent token of Fay's affection. Such were the effects of using anything that was blessed by a freaking pontiff.

"Will you shut up?"

Dwayne gazed up at the house, concentrating on something beyond his sense of sight. The wards that Fay had used against them had weakened considerably since he last tried to breach them.

"She home?" Paul asked. He looked from Dwayne to the house and then back again. When Dwayne shook his head, Paul sighed.

David was not going to like this.

"C'mon."

Dwayne dismounted and walked up to the porch while Paul trailed after him. They tried the front door and found it locked. So much for wishful thinking.

"Go around back."

Paul slipped around into the backyard as Dwayne peered into the restored front window. The curtains were drawn tight and he could not get a clear view of the interior of the house. The place felt like an empty shell. One that still expected company however.

"Can I help you?"

Dwayne looked over his shoulder at an elderly gentleman who glared at him from the cracked cement porch of the house next door.

Great. The neighbours.

"I'm good. The woman who lives here is a friend of mine."

The old man snorted and retreated into his home. He did not buy that line for a second. A point was made when the door was locked behind him.

"Where are you Fay?"

Dwayne stepped back as the front door of Fay's house swung open. Paul had found an unlocked window at the back of the house and had let himself in. Dwayne stepped inside and saw why it was so quiet. The house was empty. All of the furniture was covered in white sheets or packed neatly into boxes off into various corners. It seemed that Fay had high-tailed it out of town with a few possession and her cats in tow while they had been dead to the world.

"Where would she go?" Paul asked as he began to snoop for clues.

They went from room to room, checking to see if Fay had left behind any sort of message. In one of the upstairs bedrooms, hers he rightfully guessed, Dwayne spied a small broken figurine that lay abandoned on the carpeted floor. When he picked it up he saw that it was a small hand-carved statue of an Egyptian cat. Fay was ever the cat lady and this piece felt old. It was special and not something she would have left behind by accident.

He pocketed the pieces and turned to Paul who drifted into the room after giving the bathroom a serious once over. A few cans of Aqua Net hairspray had found their way into the pockets of his jacket.

"Let's go."

Without another word the two exited the house but not before they closed the place up properly. Someday Fay would return. They had a deal after all and Dwayne planned on keeping his side of the bargain.

"Where to now?"

Dwayne gave the house a final once over. It was quiet and empty but not sad. The cats and their Lady would be back. When? He had no idea. But it would only be a matter of time. Time was something he had plenty of.

"Boardwalk."

Marko and David would be waiting for them at the usual spot near the old steel truss bridge at the end of the Boardwalk. From there they would set out to hunt midst the crowds, like they would go on to do every night from there on in.

Santa Carla had a resident pack of vampires of her very own once again but the town felt different without its Cat Lady to maintain the balance. Without Fay there was nowhere that the Lost Boys could not go or nothing they could not do. The city was theirs to do with as they pleased. For the time being anyway. All that would soon change in a way none of them would see coming. Santa Carla had a mind of her own, and she did not play favourites.


End file.
